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Why the New York Times Spelling Bee Didn’t Include That Word

Puzzling over the New York Times Spelling Bee, Jordan in Cheyenne, Wyoming, played the word pipped, but was surprised that the game disallowed it. He remembers hearing the word in stories about the historic 1954 Miracle Mile race between Sir Roger Bannister and John Landy. It’s true that the word is commonly used in British English, but as Bee editor Sam Ezersky has explained, the game’s answers are selected from curated lists compiled from some dictionaries and not others, and those parameters are also part of the challenge. This is part of a complete episode.

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