Why the Letter 'S' Is Banned: The Secret History of Spelling Bee Game Design

1. The Origin: Frank Longo's "Polygon" Precursor

Before the digital version of Spelling Bee debuted on May 9, 2018 under editor Sam Ezersky, the puzzle existed as a print feature titled Polygon in the New York Times Magazine, originally crafted by master puzzle constructor Frank Longo.

In the early days of mechanical word puzzles, constructors observed an annoying flaw in games like Boggle and Anagrams: whenever the letter 'S' was present on the board, a player's score was less about vocabulary breadth and more about who could mechanically append an 'S' to every single noun and verb already found.

Longo recognized that if a daily word puzzle was to be engaging, intellectually dignified, and fun, it needed to reward lexical discovery, not mechanical suffix duplication. Thus, the ironclad rule was born: the letter 'S' shall never appear in the hive.

2. The Plural Inflation Problem: A Mathematical Demonstration

To understand why the ban is essential, consider what happens computationally if 'S' is introduced into an existing daily hive.

Suppose today's hive contains the letters [C, A, T, E, R, P, L] with A at the center. In standard play, this generates approximately 45 valid English words, such as CATER, PLACE, CRATER, PALACE, and CARPET.

Now replace P with S:

In an instant, every single noun can be pluralized, and every single verb can be converted to the third-person singular present tense. A 45-word puzzle instantly baloons to 85+ words.

Crucially, finding those extra 40 words requires zero linguistic deduction. The player simply types the exact same list they already found, tacking 'S' onto the end. Instead of an elegant intellectual puzzle, the game degrades into a high-speed data entry exercise.

3. Morphological Enrichment: The Unintended Blessing

By banning 'S', the creators forced the English language to reveal its other, far more interesting morphological mechanisms:

• Verbal Inflections: Solvers must look for -ED, -ING, and irregular past tenses (e.g., TOOK, WROTE, FELT) rather than relying on present-tense -S.
• Nominal Stems: Rather than simple pluralization, solvers explore nominal suffixes like -ATION, -MENT, -ANCE, and -ITY.
• Agent Nouns: Words like PAINTER, EDITOR, and ACTOR take center stage, expanding the solver's understanding of word construction.

This constraint elevates the puzzle from a kindergarten spelling bee to a sophisticated daily linguistic workout.

4. Why 'D' and 'G' Are Allowed When '-ED' and '-ING' Exist

Solvers often ask: "If 'S' is banned because of plurals, why aren't 'D' and 'G' banned because of '-ED' and '-ING'?"

Linguists call this the asymmetry of morphological productivity:

• The 'S' Universal: Nearly 98% of all English nouns accept an 'S' plural, and 100% of regular verbs accept an 'S' third-person singular. It applies universally to almost every stem.
• The '-ED' Barrier: In contrast, '-ED' requires an E AND a D (consuming 2 of the 7 slots in the hive!). Furthermore, '-ED' applies only to verbs, not nouns (you cannot say "TABLED" in casual usage, nor can you turn every item into a past-tense verb).
• The '-ING' Barrier: Forming '-ING' requires 3 separate letters (I, N, G), which occupies nearly half the entire honeycomb! That high inventory cost naturally balances the game board.

5. Sam Ezersky's Curatorial Rulebook

In interviews, NYT Games editor Sam Ezersky has reaffirmed that the 'S' ban remains non-negotiable. It is the defining design boundary that preserves the harmony of Queen Bee scoring. Without it, reaching Queen Bee would require memorizing hundreds of obscure pluralizations rather than discovering beautiful compound words and pangrams.

At SpellingBeeSolver.net, our algorithms honor this legacy. Our custom letter tools allow players to experiment with custom hives, but our daily solvers and historical archives mirror the elegant, 'S'-free standard that makes the New York Times Spelling Bee a timeless masterpiece.