All's not what it seems

Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee is an online word game, hosted by the New York Times. You're given seven letters, arranged in a honeycomb pattern—ho ho ho—from which to make words. The only stipulations are that each must be on the list of accepted words; must be at least four letters long; and must contain the letter in the centre.

So, in a fit of unbridled lethargy today, I decided to explore in which order these rules are applied. And would a word that didn't meet more than one requirement fail at the first, or would all rules be tested?

FOITN: not an accepted word
Not an accepted word.
NOTICE: does not include centre letter
Does not include centre letter.
FIN: too short
Too short.
TINCOE: not an accepted word, does not include centre letter
Not an accepted word. Does not include centre letter.
FCO: not an accepted word, too short
Not an accepted word. Too short.
TOE: too short, does not include centre letter
Too short. Does not include centre letter.
IOT: too short, does not include centre letter, not an accepted word
Too short. Does not include centre letter. Not an accepted word.
FENNEC: not an accepted word
Not an accepted word.

The images, above, show each of the three rules tested singly and in combination. It's clear that the rules are tested in the following order: length—IOT, FCO, and TOE failed; centre letter—TINCOE failed; present in word list. This makes sense, since they are in increasing order of complexity, and therefore required server resources. Also, if the submitted word fails one rule, no subsequent ones are checked, which also makes sense.

One other thing: this is a US-hosted game, so the vagaries of merkan vocabulary apply. The fennec fox is an unknown. Being NYT, I wonder if Spelling Bee has other words missing from its list?

That's about it, really. Sorry to have bothered you. (shrug)

Neither amnion, nor its adjectival form, are on the list. Perhaps the NYT considers reference to reproduction to be too spicy.

AMNIONIC: not an accepted word

Amnionic is an accepted alternative to amniotic.

It was only then that I realised that CHINK might've fallen foul of some kind of censorship. Or does the editor, Sam Ezersky, have a limited grip of the English language himself? I don't think I can be arsed trying to identify words that are on an accepted list not just for having real meaning, but also because they're not verboten by some dumfuque at the NYT.

CHINK: not an accepted word