Zaki Gulamani paused for a few seconds as he pictured the word in his head.

Pancreas.

It wasn't a word that the Carden Conejo School seventh-grader was familiar with, so he asked moderator Madeleine Eustis for its definition.

He then smiled and spelled the word with ease.

"I actually didn't know that one, so I had to visualize it," Zaki said.

After about 40 minutes and 17 rounds, he won the Area 10 Ventura County Spelling Bee on Tuesday at Bethany Christian School in Thousand Oaks.

Tuesday's competition included home-schooled students and students who attend private schools in the Conejo Valley area.

Seventh-grader Cody Phillips, a student at Trinity Pacific Christian School in Thousand Oaks, will serve as the Area 10 alternate. Trinity Pacific serves home-schoolers.

This year, more than 160 local schools are participating in the bee, which is sponsored by The Star, County Schools Federal Credit Union and the county Office of Education. School winners move on to one of 10 area competitions.

Winners of the area contests will vie in the county finals March 10 at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo.

The countywide winner will go on to the 81st annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 29-30 in Washington, D.C. Scripps is the parent company of The Star.

Tuesday's Area 10 bee began with nine spellers and was narrowed down to Zaki and Cody after Eustis skipped to more difficult words.

After Zaki spelled "diesel" correctly, Cody stumbled on "collaborate."

Zaki sealed his first-place spot after spelling "pancreas."

"I haven't seen that word before collaborate," Cody said after the bee. "This is my second time in the area bee, and it was mostly fun. I like getting in front of people."

Zaki, who has participated in the bee since the third grade, said he is excited to be a returning participant.

"It feels really good," he said. "I was nervous about some of the words, but it was fun knowing that I would get far and win."

Proud parents Milly and Salim Gulamani said their energetic son is "very driven" and will have to study more for the county bee.

"I'm going to use this," Zaki Gulamani said as he held up an electronic thesaurus, one of the prizes he received for winning the Area 10 bee.