'Koinonia' was the winning word of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee — here's what it means

• Karthik Nemmani won the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee with the word "koinonia."
• The word refers to Christian believers or the idea of spiritual sharing within that community.
• In more common parlance, it refers to an ideal, unified fellowship among Christians.
• The word is originally Greek but entered the English language in 1907, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani was an underdog to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday, but he nabbed the top prize with the word "koinonia."

But what does "koinonia" even mean? The word has two meanings, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, meaning either "the Christian fellowship or body of believers" or "intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community."

Basically, it can refer to either people who believe in Christianity, or the idea of intimate spiritual sharing within a common religious community. But in more common speech, it refers to the ideal, unified fellowship that should exist within the Christian community.

The word is originally Greek, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and literally means "communion" or "fellowship." The OED traces its first usage in English to 1907 in a publication titled "Gospel according to St. Paul" by  the American Espiscopal priest and theologian William Porcher DuBose.

"As the first two truths of our faith in Christ might be called those of the Father and the Son, so the third may be designated that of the Spirit," DuBose wrote. "Or, to put it in the other way, as the first two may be called those of the divine love and the divine grace, so the third may be named that of the divine koinonia."

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