Murraya, which was spelled correctly by spelling champion Zaila Avant-garde, is a genus of plants belonging to a citrus family of flowering plants.
A genus of plants known as Murraya was the winning word of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The word was correctly spelled by Zaila Avant-garde,14, whose win made her the first African American to win the 90-year-old competition on Thursday. Avant-garde is the first Black contestant to win since 1998 when Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica won the bee. According the competition website, Avant-garde is “an avid reader who demonstrated a strong interest in words from a very early age.” In addition to her love for words and language, she enjoys “learning new things, playing basketball, listening to music and podcasts, and hanging out with her family,” the website describes. As said by Avant-garde at the competition, the word is phonetically pronounced “muh-ree-yuh.
