# NYT Spelling Bee drives me crazy **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** board-card-word-game\ **Created:** [December 17, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739 "2023-12-17T15:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 54
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1061 "2025-01-17T12:54:37Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Or ENCEINTE, although that’s probably too French. I don’t know, somehow CHICA is accepted, and I don’t know that as anything but a Spanish word (and, CHICO isn’t). ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1062 "2025-01-17T18:26:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I don’t know, somehow CHICA is accepted, and I don’t know that as anything but a Spanish word (and, CHICO isn’t) BlankSlate had the reason on June 2: > [@BlankSlate](#): > > Chica is a plant. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1063 "2025-01-17T18:28:45Z")
Which dictionary? I’m not seeing it as the first or second definition anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1064 "2025-01-17T18:34:37Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Which dictionary? Huh - I see it only in Collins, and as British English. I used to complain about it until BlankSlate posted that, so now I can go back to complaining. [https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/chica](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/chica) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1065 "2025-01-17T18:53:23Z")
Aw man, I was so excited to use TEFF for a moment ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1066 "2025-01-17T20:11:01Z")
LENTICEL. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1067 "2025-01-18T17:23:29Z")
Was it just me or was Spelling Bee not particularly difficult today? Only words starting with three letters and a bunch of four-letter words followed by the same word with -ed added. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1068 "2025-01-18T17:38:32Z")
I thought it was pretty disappointing (though Bees with 275 points and ED, ING make me murderous). ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1069 "2025-01-18T18:17:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Was it just me or was Spelling Bee not particularly difficult today? Due to an extended brainfart, I didn’t get the pangram today until after I achieved Genius status. Which tells me that, yes, it was not exceedingly hard today. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1070 "2025-01-18T18:18:56Z")
I was working from Spelling Bee Buddy and saw that I had two words remaining; one six-letter and one eight-letter. I _assumed_ the eight-letter word was the six-letter word with -ed added. So I was stuck looking for the right word. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1071 "2025-01-18T18:20:37Z")
I found Saturday’s and Sunday’s puzzles harder than usual, but today’s was easier. I got to genius pretty quickly, and Queen Bee, with a few basic hints, shortly after. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1072 "2025-01-18T19:44:09Z")
Connections also seemed quite easy today. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1073 "2025-01-18T20:13:13Z")
Today, my good friends, I got QB completely on my own without the buddy or any hints! I got to the point of knowing that I needed two (or maybe three) more four letter words. I got HEME by accident and it took me forever to finally figure out AHEM. It’s so damn arbitrary which foreign foods count. NAAN is a word but DAHL isn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1074 "2025-01-18T20:19:02Z")
If by “dahl” you mean Indian dishes based on pulses, it’s usually spelled dal. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1075 "2025-01-18T20:21:22Z")
I have much more frequently seen it spelled as dahl at Indian or Nepali restaurants, I’m pretty sure. A Google search for dahl shows a great deal of links to recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1076 "2025-01-18T20:30:44Z")
We had a similar discussion about poppadoms, which is another Indian food word with spelling variations. That there is no single standard spelling in American English may be why the words aren’t acceptable for this game. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1077 "2025-01-19T00:26:37Z")
Unless it’s KEBAB. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1078 "2025-01-19T09:39:59Z")
I had an unusual experience tonight. You may remember upthread that I posted about a similar game called Word Flower run by the Oregonian (local paper here in Oregon). The basic game is the same, but everything else, like scoring and hints, is different. Anyway, new games for Word Flower go up at 9 p.m. and the Spelling Bee at midnight (our time). I don’t always play Word Flower, but I had 45 minutes to kill before the Bee, so decided to play it. When the Bee came up, I found that the two games shared 6 of the letters. They didn’t have the same index letter, but still there was a fair amount of overlap in the accepted words. I’ve finished Word Flower (needed only three hints) and am still working on SB (haven’t gone to the hints yet). I’ve found WF to be easier than SB; it doesn’t seem to have as many obscure words. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1079 "2025-01-19T11:48:18Z")
Yeah, I wasn’t happy about that omission, either. I thought of cherry trees. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/1080 "2025-01-20T05:27:33Z")
FYI, on Sunday we reached Genius for the 500th time out of 535 puzzles played. My wife and I play together on our separate tablets, but on the same account, so we see each other’s entries. She usually stsrts them, and I usually finish. Since finding SBB, I try to go for QB every day. I’ve gotten 36 so far, most of them in the last few weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739.md?page=53) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739.md?page=55)