Discord allows the bot to edit a message after it's sent. Let's use this to return a message immediately when a user spells a word, then follow up with status message after processing the word. E.g. (untested):
@bot.command()
async def word(ctx, word):
message = await ctx.send(f"checking dictionary for {word}...")
[...check word and process score etc...]
await message.edit(content="You spelled the word FURBALLS and received...")
Discord allows the bot to edit a message after it's sent. Let's use this to return a message immediately when a user spells a word, then follow up with status message after processing the word. E.g. (untested):