ITT we will:- Crow about your QBs.- Carp about perfectly cromulent words that are not accepted.- Curse Sam for thinking that "heptane" is a common word.
No ses or ers need apply.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Thursday, 12 August 2021 21:25 (two years ago) link
Also is using https://www.shunn.net/bee/latest considered cheating.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Thursday, 12 August 2021 23:14 (two years ago) link
Two pangrams today, and I've only been able to find one...
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 18:14 (two years ago) link
And Spelling Bee helped me with Learned League yesterday!
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 18:20 (two years ago) link
Pineal (as in the gland, which Descartes believed was the seat of the soul) missing from yesterday’s bee
― flopson, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 18:29 (two years ago) link
yet “peen” is included 🤔
― flopson, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 18:30 (two years ago) link
i tried pineal, too! i know it from the movie From Beyond where stimulating the gland causes you to...see into other dimensions and turn into an insane monster? i'm fuzzy on the details
― orifex, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 19:28 (two years ago) link
Note to self: DITTOheads are IDIOTs.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Wednesday, 25 August 2021 22:31 (two years ago) link
I don't have a NYT games subscription so I've been doing https://bee.ignoble.dev instead.
― adam t. (abanana), Wednesday, 25 August 2021 23:42 (two years ago) link
thank you for sharing that! it doesn't work on my laptop for some reason, but it will be a great diversion for times when I just have my phone
I finally gave in and got a 1-year NYT Games subscription last week, and have enjoyed doing the crossword and spelling bee each day
― Dan S, Thursday, 26 August 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
It didn't let me type into the game, either, so I think it just doesn't support physical keyboards.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Thursday, 26 August 2021 00:49 (two years ago) link
got 1 point from genius in today's puzzle then got completely stumped. brutal
― flopson, Thursday, 26 August 2021 05:37 (two years ago) link
Yeah, the letters weren't very fun, I just managed to reach genius but mostly gave up thereafter.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Thursday, 26 August 2021 06:01 (two years ago) link
Trying to hit 400 points today (QB almost certainly out of reach), but I've probably topped out at 67/392.
― wildleee questionable baking substitutions (Leee), Saturday, 28 August 2021 18:16 (two years ago) link
What is QB? I got to 349 points and 59 words and stopped. I like these ones where you can find a lot of words
― Dan S, Sunday, 29 August 2021 01:48 (two years ago) link
QB = queen bee = you find every possible word
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 29 August 2021 03:18 (two years ago) link
thanks
I love this game
― Dan S, Sunday, 29 August 2021 03:27 (two years ago) link
I usually stop a few words after genius but I got QB a few times the past week. Yesterday was too much like work tho.
― KPH, Sunday, 29 August 2021 20:30 (two years ago) link
embolize should have been included as a word in today's puzzle
― Dan S, Sunday, 29 August 2021 22:44 (two years ago) link
The other day “unceded” was not on the word list, which surprised me as it’s a word I hear or read almost daily here in British Columbia. But perhaps it’s too uncommon in the US.
Other missing words from recent puzzlesTuataraAnnatto
I’ve never made it to queen bee. Closest I’ve come is the other day when I was only missing tomtit.
I’ve played this game every so often since it started but just in the past few weeks have I gotten more obsessive about it.
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Monday, 30 August 2021 05:40 (two years ago) link
I admittedly don't want to shell out for a Games sub so I just play until it stops me, which usually takes about a minute lol
― Kind regards, Anus (the table is the table), Monday, 30 August 2021 17:08 (two years ago) link
does anyone else have words that evade your grasp no matter how many times they show up in a puzzle, even though it's a word you're already familiar with? e.g. i appear to be totally incapable of entering MELEE in any puzzle that has M, E and L in it
― donna rouge, Monday, 30 August 2021 17:23 (two years ago) link
I'm sure I have loads, but the one I can currently think of is DITTO, hence the mnemonic I posted upthread.
― Moz Jabroni (Leee), Monday, 30 August 2021 17:28 (two years ago) link
feign and deign a couple of days ago were impossible for me
― Dan S, Monday, 30 August 2021 23:28 (two years ago) link
got a few semi-obscure words today but couldn’t get lantana
― Dan S, Tuesday, 31 August 2021 03:42 (two years ago) link
he's that guy who does the youtube record review, right?
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 31 August 2021 18:46 (two years ago) link
Pretty easy QB today which was a relief after yesterday although not accepting wiggity is wack.
― KPH, Tuesday, 31 August 2021 23:30 (two years ago) link
Yes, got to QB for the first time
― Dan S, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 00:07 (two years ago) link
the hardest word for me today was a common four-letter word, I just couldn’t think of it
― Dan S, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 00:20 (two years ago) link
I was surprised they accepted wiggy
― Dan S, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 00:36 (two years ago) link
got QB today too ^_^
― flopson, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 02:13 (two years ago) link
came upon wight just by accident, don’t think I’ve ever heard it used in a sentence except on Game of Thrones
― Dan S, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 03:35 (two years ago) link
Sigh, add THIGH to the list of common words I always overlook (and which was the one word I missed yesterday).
― Moz Jabroni (Leee), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 15:24 (two years ago) link
Loanwords beef: NADA is a frequent answer (and I think that we've seen FINITO before), but not HOLA (meanwhile, ALOHA is accepted).
― Moz Jabroni (Leee), Thursday, 2 September 2021 18:02 (two years ago) link
I agree with you, but it is worth noting that ALOHA is an enormously common word of a US colony, whereas HOLA is...well, not.
― Kind regards, Anus (the table is the table), Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:50 (two years ago) link
Well, Hawaii is a state, but then what about NADA and FINITO? We borrowed those straight from Spanish, and furthermore, HOLA is extremely common in several American states too.
― Moz Jabroni (Leee), Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:19 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I mean, I agree. I was just thinking about possible reasons!
― Kind regards, Anus (the table is the table), Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:26 (two years ago) link
Another note: ALOHA, NADA, and FINITO are all valid words in Scrabble. HOLA is not.
― Kind regards, Anus (the table is the table), Thursday, 2 September 2021 20:28 (two years ago) link
the pangram hasn't usually been the hardest word for me to get, but today it was
― Dan S, Friday, 3 September 2021 01:20 (two years ago) link
i have a whole ran abt this ill prob unleash itt but compound word pangrams (like today’s) are super annoying and unsatisfying
― flopson, Friday, 3 September 2021 02:05 (two years ago) link
I think I've found at least one other compound word pangram made of two 4-letter words in the last couple of weeks, but can't think of what it was at the moment. I liked expanding plane to biplane, and also discovering the suffix -ize to expand demon to demonize and demonized
― Dan S, Friday, 3 September 2021 02:17 (two years ago) link
xps
I think there is some validity to the argument that NADA and maybe even FINITO are words that an American English speaker might use as slang, without feeling like they are borrowing a word from Spanish. HOLA might be just as likely as those to be used by an English speaker, but I think said speaker would be more likely to feel like they are using a Spanish word for effect. It is admittedly a slim distinction but I think I can grasp their rationale. Not sure where ALOHA fits into that - it seems to be sort of in the middle of that scale, with the caveat that a lot of Americans might use it without even being able to identify it as being from another language (thinking it's just Hawaiian slang).
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 3 September 2021 17:18 (two years ago) link
it feels slightly diminishing to even think along these lines and it’s a failing of the game imo. not saying i know how to fix it. the crossword has worked out a way to include proper names, foreign words, slang mottos like BALLISLIFE and more while also maintaining a famously rigorous clue style that allows for very precise solving. it’s hard to discern a personality behind spelling bee. its dead ends don’t describe the outline of anything in particular. “is it american” is one of the least interesting things i can imagine a puzzle forcing me to think about.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 3 September 2021 20:31 (two years ago) link
i agree with all that, i guess that's why I don't think Spelling Bee is really in the same ballpark as crosswords
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 3 September 2021 20:45 (two years ago) link
The itch that SB scratches that the crossword doesn't is that iterative variation thing where you're going through -ED or -ING words. I don't need a personality from it (though complaining about the omissions/inclusions is now part of the appeal, not to mention the culture), and the anagramming itself is extremely fulfilling -- and if I'm being pretentious (and wrong), it makes me feel like I'm Nabokov.
I will say, though, that after some days that are a slog, and seeing my score at 0 with the new day's letters feels like an endless ratrace.
― Moz Jabroni (Leee), Friday, 3 September 2021 21:55 (two years ago) link
As always with any puzzle or game of this nature the gatekeeping around what is omitted is where it falls down
It should wear this role as lightly as possible given the frankly nonsensical words it does allow through
I think that it is getting the mix badly wrong myself tbh
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Friday, 3 September 2021 22:36 (two years ago) link
for the most part when the puzzle doesn't accept a word I'm content to move on. agree with Leee about the anagram aspect of it being fulfilling
― Dan S, Friday, 3 September 2021 23:25 (two years ago) link
same but how is FIEF not acceptable i ask you
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 4 September 2021 01:50 (two years ago) link
the lack of footprints to trace back good days and bad is not a feature it's a bug
fief was accepted! I was surprised by that
― Dan S, Saturday, 4 September 2021 02:10 (two years ago) link
Speaking of other nyt puzzles, Connections is getting better. usually they have at least one hard group, like the one with SWIMMERS today. There's a copycat site called conlextions that's good too.
― adam t. (abanana), Saturday, 28 October 2023 00:45 (five months ago) link
Regarding Connections, the final swimmers category today was clever but not gettable on its own at all imo, and you had to know the four WNBA team names before that, which I also didn't know. My sister and I had a laugh over it
― Dan S, Saturday, 28 October 2023 00:50 (five months ago) link
the purple (hardest) group I'm most proud of having gotten is:
mild, livid, mix, dill
yesterday's bubble, globe, marble and pearl seemed obvious in the end
― Dan S, Saturday, 28 October 2023 00:59 (five months ago) link
Today's Spelling Bee was quite something! looking at the letter choices you would initially think there weren't very many words, but it turned out there were 64 of them, including 5 pangrams!
― Dan S, Saturday, 28 October 2023 02:22 (five months ago) link
sent sam links to 4 nyt articles that used CYCLONIC, he should let them know it’s not a real word
― scanner darkly, Saturday, 28 October 2023 17:05 (five months ago) link
I was looking up a word on the M-W site and they have a live-ish list of top word searches and they were ALL from today's Connections.
― Rimbaud: First Blood (Leee), Monday, 20 November 2023 22:45 (four months ago) link
Maybe everyone knows about this but i recently discovered puzzgrid.com which is now my go-to timewasting activity. It's inspired by the Only Connect version of Connections, meaning there's a time limit and you can guess the categories. Here are two of the grids I made.https://puzzgrid.com/grid/86204https://puzzgrid.com/grid/86648
― formerly abanana (dat), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 02:32 (four months ago) link
Okay is it okay to just note the rather tiresome acai/acacia and coca/cacao/cocoa sequences?
(apologies if that is a spoiler for anyone)
― Iris Demented (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 1 December 2023 02:05 (three months ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/c7Msy8Z.jpg
― mookieproof, Friday, 1 December 2023 02:52 (three months ago) link
that thing that happens where you compulsively enter a word that you know isn’t an actual accepted word but you do it anyway because it’s the only thing you can see at that moment
Today’s: OOMPALOOMPA
― Roz, Thursday, 4 January 2024 17:58 (two months ago) link
...GTFO.
I know it's been said a billion times but their cherrypicking of what does and does not count as a legit word is such complete + total BS.
― Great-Tasting Burger Perceptions (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 January 2024 18:04 (two months ago) link
i tried two old tech ones: palmpilot and popmail
― adam t. (abanana), Friday, 5 January 2024 01:10 (two months ago) link
I have been doing these for the last few weeks while on holidays - have got to g-zone on every one so far (a few took extreme mental grind for me) - but this one has fuct me, I don’t see myself even making “amazing” at this point
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Friday, 5 January 2024 07:22 (two months ago) link
And yes would love to have a word with whoever decides that panini is okay but arancini is no good (etc etc)
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Friday, 5 January 2024 07:23 (two months ago) link
His name is Sam, and (as has been discussed) it's entirely his idiosyncratic preferences that shape the game.
The game is to guess what he allows and doesn't allow. It isn't the full set of English words, or Scrabble-allowed words. It's just him and his quirks. If you or I curated the game it would probably be just as idiosyncratic, just in different ways.
If you don't feel like doing that, go play a different game.
There are clones that use a broader word set, but you don't get the same aspect of communing with the NYT games ecosystem and having running statistics, and commiserating with a million other wretchedly addicted dorkwads like me.
― CthulhuLululemon (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 5 January 2024 12:42 (two months ago) link
I guess it's part of the charm. "Tooltip" was one I was cursing him for yesterday.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 5 January 2024 15:04 (two months ago) link
NYT Spelling Bee After Dark
― Great-Tasting Burger Perceptions (Old Lunch), Friday, 5 January 2024 15:09 (two months ago) link
Sam Ezersky, for it is he, is even more frustrating when he’s creating crosswords so I’m glad that spelling bee keeps him busy enough
― Roz, Friday, 5 January 2024 16:37 (two months ago) link
tried ROBOCOP and BRITPOP yesterday but i guess sam is no fan of either
― scanner darkly, Sunday, 7 January 2024 18:03 (two months ago) link
The first word I saw when I opened this game today was alchemical, and I thought that was pretty good, and I was disappointed.
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Monday, 8 January 2024 03:24 (two months ago) link
same!
― Roz, Monday, 8 January 2024 03:28 (two months ago) link
Thirded. And I usually try to get QB with hints but after one too many "IDK what this thing is" clues I just gave up.
― Captain Sisko and Ebert (Leee), Monday, 8 January 2024 03:30 (two months ago) link
big words today
― mookieproof, Monday, 8 January 2024 08:17 (two months ago) link
No RHYTHMICITY :/
― Roz, Wednesday, 10 January 2024 13:02 (two months ago) link
Or THICC
― CthulhuLululemon (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 10 January 2024 18:36 (two months ago) link
no BOLLOCK or COCKBLOCK : /
― mookieproof, Friday, 12 January 2024 15:35 (two months ago) link
I feel if The Bear can win all the Golden Globes we can at least have a COOKBRO
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 12 January 2024 15:44 (two months ago) link
okay not accepting MONOACID is ridiculous even by sam’s standards
― scanner darkly, Sunday, 21 January 2024 17:12 (two months ago) link
The other day we were mad that it didn't take CETACEA
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 21 January 2024 17:30 (two months ago) link
and i guess NONACIDIC is such an obscure word too. notsam must’ve failed chemistry since he hates it so much
― scanner darkly, Sunday, 21 January 2024 18:44 (two months ago) link
Ah, the daily ritual of Bee annoyance, what Sam will and won't include.
I love the smell of grievance in the morning
― Wine not? (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 21 January 2024 19:11 (two months ago) link
Allow me to grouse about a word that is not accepted today: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/placable
― Selune Gomez (Leee), Tuesday, 13 February 2024 16:05 (one month ago) link
Last night's real words that were not accepted: BARDO and DOBRO.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 27 February 2024 20:53 (one month ago) link
accepting INEFFABLE but not EFFABLE is LAFFABLE
― Roz, Friday, 1 March 2024 13:08 (four weeks ago) link
came here to post the same sentiment. i mean it’s one thing to cherry pick what’s accepted and what’s not, but this is pretty ridiculous
― scanner darkly, Friday, 1 March 2024 18:30 (four weeks ago) link
(i haven’t finished the bee yet but opened the spoilers because i knew exactly which words you meant lol)
― scanner darkly, Friday, 1 March 2024 18:31 (four weeks ago) link
Just out of devil's advocacy, have you really ever said, or written, EFFABLE?
Or, like, vincible, couth, plussed, sheveled?
― alpaca lips now (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 1 March 2024 19:05 (four weeks ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpaired_word#In_English
― Selune Gomez (Leee), Friday, 1 March 2024 20:22 (four weeks ago) link
sam is a force of nature and we mere humans can attempt to rationalize his decision making but the point of this game is precisely the lack of any rhyme or reason when it comes to what’s accepted and what’s not
― scanner darkly, Friday, 1 March 2024 21:19 (four weeks ago) link
ppl love knowing the name of the dude who randomly deleted some words from the list of words
― cozen itt (wins), Friday, 1 March 2024 21:37 (four weeks ago) link
Scanner darkly, I have said before that if anyone else curated the list, the list would be just as arbitrary (just in a different way). What is obscure, what is obscene, what is a variant spelling.
Sam is okay with pipit, pippin, tallit, cabala, and dildo. He likes the acacia and acai combo, plus cacao cocoa coca.
The game is not (and has never been) "every word." Even Scrabble isn't "every word"; it's "every word in the official dictionary," which may mean the US Scrabble dictionary or SOWPODS or whatever.
― alpaca lips now (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 1 March 2024 22:29 (four weeks ago) link
it’s not arbitrary at all, it’s a character study of sam ezersky in chiaroscuro
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 1 March 2024 22:45 (four weeks ago) link
^ best use of "chiaroscuro" in ilx history; thanking u
― alpaca lips now (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 1 March 2024 22:57 (four weeks ago) link
i doff my cap sir
anyway that's why i like the paper one, because there is a word list, but (as i have probably bored you with already on this thread) you are actively encouraged to count other words not on the list if you deem them acceptable (by whatever your own criteria are), so actually every paper spelling bee becomes a character study of YOU!
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 1 March 2024 23:04 (four weeks ago) link
Gutted that I tapped out at Amazing on Friday. Ended my 26 day Genius run. On my birthday, even!
― avoid boring people, Sunday, 10 March 2024 21:30 (two weeks ago) link
did sam forget to turn in his homework or
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 12:02 (one week ago) link
wha happen
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 20 March 2024 12:10 (one week ago) link
my app refuses to update with wednesday’s
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 20 March 2024 12:21 (one week ago) link
ok sam is just plain trolling us with that pangram at this point, right
― scanner darkly, Thursday, 28 March 2024 23:58 (yesterday) link
My thoughts exactly.
― Astarion Is Born (Leee), Friday, 29 March 2024 00:28 (twelve hours ago) link