# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/161 "2024-03-05T02:15:47Z")
My objection is more about consistency than any particular word. Sam can of course abitrate words as he sees fit. But it is dismaying when he accepts for example, bonobo and callaloo, while rejecting gannet. I’d be happy if he allowed more “obscure” words like that. It isn’t a big deal, it’s just that I have a goal of making it to Genius with no clues every day, and when I am close but struggling, it’s so disappointing to have a word like naphtha or gannet rejected. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2024, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/162 "2024-03-05T03:54:07Z")
For sure, one person’s obvious is another’s obscure. I live in Massachusetts now, but knew the word before we moved here three years ago, and not because I saw them in Maryland, Nevada, or Georgia, the other states I’ve lived in. As I said, I know almost nothing about birds, and I have no idea if I’ve ever seen a gannet in the flesh. Or feathers. Whatever. Somehow, somewhere, I learned the word, so it’s obvious to me. As I mentioned [above](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/8), I may have first heard abbatoir in Monty Python’s architect sketch. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/163 "2024-03-05T05:12:57Z")
Speaking of birds, it’s been a long while since I’ve seen a frikkin tomtit. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2024, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/164 "2024-03-05T12:54:57Z")
Did anyone find the puzzle yesterday (3/4, G A C E N O T) harder than usual? And does anyone else think that one of the pangrams, COTANGENT, might reasonably be considered obscure, if one hadn’t happened to study trigonometry? It was the last word I got, putting me over Genius level. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/165 "2024-03-05T14:19:34Z")
Yes, I found yesterday harder than usual. In general I seem to find the three–vowel puzzles more difficult. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/166 "2024-03-05T14:27:48Z")
Today is also a three-vowel day. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/167 "2024-03-05T14:28:16Z")
Indeed it is. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2024, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/168 "2024-03-05T14:31:50Z")
I didn’t find today as hard as yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/169 "2024-03-05T14:34:27Z")
I did not either. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/170 "2024-03-05T14:37:52Z")
It may be that today’s letters are just more common? And then occasionally the letters include i n g or e d, so any it’s possible to add a second word for any verbs. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/171 "2024-03-05T15:54:01Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Did anyone find the puzzle yesterday (3/4, G A C E N O T) harder than usual? > > And does anyone else think that one of the pangrams, COTANGENT, might reasonably be considered obscure, if one hadn’t happened to study trigonometry? I did find it harder than usual. That pangram was one of the earlier words I got, but then I have studied that subject. I didn’t get the other pangram until after looking at the hints and ended up three words short of QB. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2024, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/172 "2024-03-06T02:43:19Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > And does anyone else think that one of the pangrams, COTANGENT, might reasonably be considered obscure, if one hadn’t happened to study trigonometry? I got that one fairly easily because I had trig in high school and it’s in NYT crossword puzzles. But I had trouble with today’s (March 5) puzzle. Armorial & Malarial ? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2024, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/173 "2024-03-06T04:23:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hell, playing a casual game of scrabble and throwing down AAS gets me threatening looks and “that’s not a word!” unless I’m playing competitive types. Probably not as shocking and scary as playing QAT. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2024, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/174 "2024-03-07T11:10:42Z")
OK, today it takes untune and untune, which I don’t even think are words, but it doesn’t allow detune and detuned, which I think are correct. Chrome spell check doesn’t like any of them. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/175 "2024-03-07T11:43:36Z")
Also accepted DETENTE but not [DETENT](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/detent) orDETENTED. (Apparently, Chrome doesn’t think they last two are words either, and changes them to the first.) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/176 "2024-03-07T12:20:17Z")
It didn’t take the obvious rude word today, but I had to try… ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/177 "2024-03-07T14:25:04Z")
Sam was born in the [1800s](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Untune%2C+detune&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) apparently. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/178 "2024-03-07T15:11:45Z")
Haha! Evidently. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/179 "2024-03-07T19:25:36Z")
I was quite disappointed when DENUTTED was rejected today. That’s a word that we farm boys used to describe a bull calf after it had been castrated. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/180 "2024-03-07T20:33:49Z")
Several people in the Comments section were miffed that UNTENDED (as a garden) wasn’t included. I’ve always been puzzled by the lack of COON. Do people still use that as a slur? Because coon dog is perfectly cromulent. But I get that he has to draw the line somewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739.md?page=10)