Washington ? Two or three years can seem like forever when you’re 13, which is why Pratyush Buddiga described his victory Thursday at the 75th annual Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee as “a fulfillment of a dream I’ve had for a long time, since I got my first Paideia” a Bee-sanctioned, 3,700-word study booklet “back in, oh, I don’t know, 2000?”

Pratyush, a seventh-grader at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Colorado Springs, had just spelled the word “prospicience” correctly in front of an audience of several hundred in the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt downtown, and on live television, to capture first place and $12,000 in one of this country’s best-known battles of brainy kids.

Pratyush Buddiga, 13, of Colorado Springs, Colo., is the winner of the 75th annual National Spelling Bee in Washington. His spelling of prospicience vaulted him to the title on Thursday.

Hands shoved into his pants pockets, braces gleaming in the TV lights, Pratyush took the same approach for his championship word as he had for the nine equally inscrutable selections grobian, thremmatology, oubliette and troching, among others that had come in earlier rounds Wednesday and Thursday.

He asked the solemn-voiced “pronouncer” (an English professor and 24-year veteran of the contest) and associate pronouncer (a classics professor and the 1980 Bee champion) to repeat the word “prospicience” several times, define it (it means “foresight”), give any alternative pronunciations or definitions, use it in a sentence and state its language of origin.

He spoke the word, visualized it in his head, wrote it in the air with his finger to make sure it “looked right.” Then he half-closed his eyes and boomed into the microphone and across ESPN-watching America: “Prospicience. P-R-O-S-P-I-C-I-E-N-C-E. Prospicience.”

He was right. When the judge said so, the audience erupted.

“I try to ask all the questions you’re allowed to ask,” Pratyush explained in a victory news conference. “I can’t believe I really won.”

Kristina Michelle Fondren, 12, of Morehead City, N.C., reacts after incorrectly spelling bathyal.

A first-time competitor in the national bee, he went head-to-head in the final rounds with Steven Nalley, 14, of Starkville, Miss. Steven was returning for his second try at the championship.

The national bee, an annual event since 1925 except for three years during World War II, drew a record 250 entrants this year from across the United States and its territories, as well as from Jamaica, the Bahamas and a few other locales. All had several qualifying contests. Fifty-four had been to the national bee before; two competed for the fourth time. Pratyush was a rookie.

The youths are a precocious cross section: kids from a rainbow of ethnicities and backgrounds who share an uncanny knack for puzzling out difficult words, as well as the curiosity and patience to memorize endless vocabulary lists and spelling patterns.

“I like knowing how words are spelled. It bugs me when a word is spelled wrong,” said Molly Nichols, 13, of East Machias, Maine, who made it to the top 25 but was tripped up by spelling “chamfer” with a “ph” instead of the “f.” She was competing for the first time.

Pratyush, who dreams of becoming a research scientist or a businessman, said he hoped to spend some of his prize money and put some away for college.

“There’s lots of ‘Star Wars’ books I want to buy,” he said, before explaining that he and a friend hoped to someday make Mars habitable for humans.

Actually, he said they wanted to “terraform” Mars, which means the same thing. Then, for the benefit of those gathered around, he spelled it.