Any other naturalists who are obsessed with the Spelling Bee game but get enraged when your nature nerd term isn’t on the “word list”? If so, welcome!
This thread is for sharing screenshots of that dreaded response, and also to help everyone learn some terminlogy that might help them with their naturalizing and iNatting.
For each post:
share a screenshot of your word with the “Not in word list” banner. No Spoilers, so please crop out everything else.
include a definition of the term
for bonus points, include an observation that illustrates the term.
Ocelli are “simple” eyes, and I usually think of flying insects like hymenoptera and odonata which have them on the top of the head. It’s believde they’re helpful for orientation, although I think there’s a lot we don’t know.
In these two wasp observations of mine, you can see the three ocelli on the top of the head, between the large compound eyes.
I play an alternate version called SpellBee and it also excludes a lot of biological terms but then includes others that are equally obscure to the general public. Also lots of British and Australian slang words I’ve never heard. I’d play the NYT game except I’d have to pay for it.
I wonder what dictionary sources these games use? They seem oddly inconsistent.
I think it basically comes down to what the editor considers to be worthy of inclusion, and they’re trying to balance a lot of factors and make sure it’s not chock full of esoteric terms.
The game I’m playing right now doesn’t recognize Mamane. Anyone who’s botanized in Hawaii knows that Sophora species. But I guess I can give the editor a pass on that one.
Oh boy, that’s a real hot-button issue for me! I’m addicted to Spelling Bee. I confess that playing it (and Wordle) comes before checking iNat every day.
I actually keep a list of words they don’t accept (as well as a list of stupid words they do accept, so I’ll remember to use them. Like pfft and ratatat.)
My absolute pet peeves of unaccepted nature words are bole, liana, corm, and woad. I report them every time. Sometimes I even send screenshots of definitions, or photos.
My other pet peeve is that sometimes the “bees” in the photo are not actually bees, but bee-mimic flies.
And does anyone else feel compelled to identify the bees? And wish they could urge the photographers to join iNat, to post them?
Illogical inclusions/omissions that irk me include several in the hydrocarbon family. For example, “naphtha” is one of several chemical terms that are in the common vernacular (at least where I grew up) yet not recognized by the Queen Bee.
If you click on “Hints” on the Spelling Bee page it opens a new page with an article about the current day’s puzzle, with a small chart that gives the total number of possible words, and points, plus a breakdown by starting letter and number of letters per word. Once I reach genius level I click on the “Hint” link to see how many more words/points I would need to reach Queen Bee status, and then use the chart as a guide if I choose to attempt to “cheat” my way to the top tier. You can also use a link to go to yesterday’s game and reveal the full list of words for that puzzle, where you will find some seriously obscure words.
Another Spelling Bee addict here. Also reported NAPHTHA multiple times! And glad I’m not the only one that zooms in to see if it’s really a bee. I’m no expert but August 22, 2022 and September 10, 2024 were obvious even to me.
This is the list of missing nature-related words that I’ve reported most often. They’ve gotten a little better with including birds over the years.
Wadging is a feeding behavior that chimpanzees do – they chew up fruit and then suck the juices out while holding the wadge in their lips. Then they discard the spent wadge.
