Spelling Bee and Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphology: Why Adding -S Is Different From Adding -NESS

If you’ve ever shouted at your screen because the NYT Spelling Bee rejected a word that seems completely legitimate, you’re not alone. Maybe you tried typing darknesses or happily and got the dreaded “Not in word list.” Or maybe you successfully played kindness but wondered why unkind didn’t work. A lot of that puzzle-to-puzzle inconsistency …