Agnosticism: Maybe shit happens, maybe it doesn't.
Atheism: No shit.
Baha'i:  Let's get a quorum together so we can talk about shit.
Buddhism: If shit happens, it's not really shit.
Catholicism: Shit happens because you're bad.
Christian Science: Shit happens in your mind.
Existentialism: What is shit anyway?
Hare Krishna: Shit happens, Ram Ram!
Hedonism: There's nothing like a good shit happenin'.
Hinduism: This shit happened before.
Islam: If shit happens, it's the will of Allah
Jehovah's Witness: Knock knock: Shit happens.  Want to read about it?
Judaism: Why does shit always happen to us?!
Protestantism: Shit happens because you don't work hard enough
Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this ship!
Stoicism: This shit doesn't bother me.
Taoism: Shit happens.
T.V. Evangelism: Send more shit!!

I would argue for calcemia to be considered at least a rare word.  It comes up in the Herriot books and I am also familiar with it as a medical term.  Hence, when rejected, I looked it up to find:

 "hypercalcemia  (hi″pәr-kal-se´me-ә)   excessive calcium in the blood; the primary symptom is that neuromuscular activity diminishes. Symptoms include lethargy, muscle weakness (which, as the level of calcium increases, can progress to depressed reflexes and hypotonic muscles), constipation, mental confusion, and eventually coma. The heartbeat also slows, which potentiates the effects of digitalis. Called also calcemia."

A rare term would be fine with me, but don't know why it was rejected outright.
 

Asse - small foxlike animal.  Commonly found in crossword puzzles.  I would wager any fan of crosswords knows this word.  It shows up in multiple dictionaries.  How about it?

There are a number of dictionaries which recognize acnode, all with the same basic definition"  "An acnode is an isolated point not on a curve, but whose coordinates satisfy the equation of the curve."

So two points:  First, I think it should be an accepted word.  Its obviously a term used in advanced mathematics as opposed to casual, everyday conversation, but there are a number of other uncommon words that are accepted which the average person has never seen or heard.

The other is I believe the "official" game dictionary (i.e., the accepted words for the game) should be available in some form so you can check words for acceptability before plugging them in.  My error rate is only as high as it is because I find words accepted in some dictionaries that seem to satisfy the word rules, such as acnode, only to have them rejected by the game.  It has become clear to me (as a relative newbie) that I don't grasp some essential part of what makes a rare word common enough to be acceptable.  I suppose its no big deal but it annoys me nevertheless.

Not in the dictionary, but another colloquial expression used is "nudies" to refer to pornographic movies.

Now, as to stars, I am curious, being a newbie:  A number of people when they post have stars next to their names.  I presume those are awarded by some kind of system.  What would that be?

Thanks.

Still trying to understand all this.  At some point I read that an acronym that was in common use and could be pronounced as a word and was used as a word should count.  If so, why not NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)?  Its certainly in widespread and common use as a word.

Another is unavail.  If I can avail myself of an opportunity, it sure seems to me that I can unavail myself, and I have heard the word used exactly that way.

OK, I am going to stop this now.  Its starting to look like I'm a whiner and I don't want to do that.  I love the game an am in awe of whoever put this together.

Why is nones not acceptable as a rare word?  The fifth canonical hour.  Is it possible it gets automatically locked out if you put in "none" before trying nones?

Hello everyone

I am a newbie (first week playing the game).  I do well when I first start, but as time passes I start making rejected word choices and often get below 70% correct.  I have two questions about that:  First, is this typical?  That is, what kind of error rates do you end up with?  Second, does this count against you in any way?

Thanks for any responses.

TR