The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

CDEKLNU

Monday, December 22, 2025

Words
59
Points
270
Genius
189
Pangrams
2

Official answers

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Pangrams highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • cellule

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • cluck

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • clucked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • clue

    noun — A strand of yarn etc. as used to guide one through a labyrinth; something which points the way, a guide.

    verb — To provide with a clue.

    noun — Information which may lead one to a certain point or conclusion.

    noun — An object or a kind of indication which may be used as evidence.

    noun — Insight or understanding ("to have a clue [about]" or "to have clue". See have a clue, clue stick)

    verb — To provide someone with information which he or she lacks (often used with "in" or "up").

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • clued

    verb — To provide with a clue.

    verb — To provide someone with information which he or she lacks (often used with "in" or "up").

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • clunk

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • clunked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • cuddle

    noun — A snuggle; an affectionate embrace, often given to family members and close friends.

    verb — To embrace affectionately, lie together snugly.

    verb — To cradle in one's arms so as to give comfort, warmth.

    verb — To lie close or snug; to crouch; to nestle.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • cuddled

    verb — To embrace affectionately, lie together snugly.

    verb — To cradle in one's arms so as to give comfort, warmth.

    verb — To lie close or snug; to crouch; to nestle.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • cued

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • cuke

    noun — A cucumber.

    noun — A cucoloris.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • cull

    noun — A selection.

    verb — To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).

    noun — A fool, gullible person; a dupe.

    noun — An organised killing of selected animals.

    noun — (farming) An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.

    noun — (seafood industry) A lobster having only one claw.

    Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

  • culled

    verb — To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).

    verb — To gather, collect.

    verb — To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.

    verb — To kill (animals etc).

    verb — To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • deduce

    verb — To reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.

    verb — To take away; to deduct; to subtract.

    verb — (Latinism) To lead forth.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • deduced

    verb — To reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.

    verb — To take away; to deduct; to subtract.

    verb — (Latinism) To lead forth.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • delude

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • deluded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • denude

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • denuded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • deuce

    noun — A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.

    noun — A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.

    noun — The number two.

    noun — A side of a die with two spots.

    noun — A cast of dice totalling two.

    noun — (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • duck

    verb — To quickly lower the head or body in order to prevent it from being struck by something.

    noun — An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.

    noun — A person or thing that is helpless, inefficient or disabled.

    noun — A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.

    noun — A term of endearment; pet; darling.

    verb — To quickly lower (the head) in order to prevent it from being struck by something.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • ducked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dude

    noun — (used in the vocative) A term of address for someone, typically a man, particularly when cautioning him or offering him advice.

    interjection — A term of address, usually for a man, conveying awe, excitement, surprise, etc.

    noun — A man, generally a younger man.

    noun — An inexperienced cowboy.

    noun — A tourist.

    noun — A man who is very concerned about his dress and appearance; a dandy, a fop.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • duel

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • dueled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • duke

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • duked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dull

    verb — To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

    adjective — Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

    verb — To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

    verb — To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

    verb — To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

    adjective — Boring; not exciting or interesting.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • dulled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • dunce

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dune

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • dunk

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dunked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dunned

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • educe

    verb — To draw out or bring forth from some basic or potential state; to elicit, to develop.

    verb — To infer or deduce (a result, theory etc.) from existing data or premises.

    verb — To isolate (a substance) from a compound; to extract.

    verb — To direct the course of (a flow, journey etc.); to lead in a particular direction.

    verb — To cause or generate; to bring about.

    noun — An inference.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • educed

    verb — To draw out or bring forth from some basic or potential state; to elicit, to develop.

    verb — To infer or deduce (a result, theory etc.) from existing data or premises.

    adjective — Evoked

    adjective — Deduced

    verb — To isolate (a substance) from a compound; to extract.

    verb — To direct the course of (a flow, journey etc.); to lead in a particular direction.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • elude

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • eluded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • endue

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • endued

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • knuckle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • knuckled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • kudu

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • luck

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • lucked

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • lull

    noun — A period of rest or soothing.

    verb — To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm

    noun — A period of reduced activity; a respite

    noun — A period without waves or wind.

    noun — An extended pause between sets of waves.

    verb — To become gradually calm; to subside; to cease or abate.

    Appeared in 21 recorded puzzles.

  • lulled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • lulu

    noun — A remarkable person, object or idea.

    noun — A very attractive or alluring person.

    noun — A very bad mistake or error.

    noun — A fixed allowance paid to a legislator in lieu of reimbursement for actual expenses.

    Appeared in 21 recorded puzzles.

  • lune

    noun — A fit of lunacy or madness; a period of frenzy; a crazy or unreasonable freak.

    noun — A concave figure formed by the intersection of the arcs of two circles on a plane, or on a sphere the intersection between two great semicircles.

    noun — (hawking) A leash for a hawk.

    noun — Anything crescent-shaped.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • lunk

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • nude

    noun — A painting, sculpture, photograph or other artwork or mass-media-reproduced image depicting one or more human figure(s) in a state of near or total undress.

    adjective — Without clothing or other covering of the skin; without clothing on the genitals or female nipples.

    noun — (with article, "the nude") The state of total nudity.

    noun — A color that resembles or evokes bare flesh; a paint, dye, etc. of such color.

    adjective — Characterized by the nudity of people concerned or to whom the described noun is attributed.

    adjective — (of clothing, makeup, etc) Of a color (such as beige or tan) that evokes bare flesh.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • nuke

    noun — A nuclear weapon.

    verb — To use a nuclear weapon on a target.

    noun — A nucleus colony; a small bee colony created from a larger colony.

    noun — The spinal cord.

    noun — A small corner formed by two walls; an alcove.

    noun — (by extension) Something that destroys or negates, especially on a catastrophic scale.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • nuked

    verb — To use a nuclear weapon on a target.

    verb — To destroy or erase completely.

    verb — (by extension) To carry out a denial-of-service attack against (an IRC user).

    verb — To expose to some form of radiation.

    verb — To cook in a microwave oven.

    verb — To over-analyze or overly despair over something.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • null

    noun — A non-existent or empty value or set of values.

    verb — To nullify; to annul.

    adjective — Having no validity; "null and void"

    noun — Zero quantity of expressions; nothing.

    noun — Something that has no force or meaning.

    noun — The ASCII or Unicode character (␀), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • ukulele

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • unceded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • uncle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • undue

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • unneeded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

clunked is a perfect pangram — all seven letters, each used exactly once.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • ce×1
  • cl×6
  • cu×6
  • de×7
  • du×14
  • ed×2
  • el×2
  • en×2
  • kn×2
  • ku×1
  • lu×7
  • nu×4
  • uk×1
  • un×4

Words by first letter and length

45678Σ
c 4324· 13
d 7383· 21
e ·33·· 6
k 1··11 3
l 5·2·· 7
n 31··· 4
u ·2·21 5
Σ 201215102 59

The numbers

Genius today takes 189 points of 270 available. The average answer runs 5.4 letters.

Total points vs. all 438 recorded puzzles
76th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
81st percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 19815 recorded answers

420 today34.4% all-time512 today22.9% all-time615 today20.1% all-time710 today12.0% all-time82 today6.2% all-time92.6% all-time101.2% all-time110.3% all-time120.1% all-time130.0% all-time

History

Today's letters, last seen

LetterLast in a puzzleLast as center
c Sunday, December 21, 2025 Tuesday, December 2, 2025
d Saturday, December 20, 2025 Thursday, December 4, 2025
e Saturday, December 20, 2025 Friday, December 5, 2025
k Sunday, December 21, 2025 Friday, November 14, 2025
l Sunday, December 21, 2025 Tuesday, December 9, 2025
n Saturday, December 20, 2025 Monday, November 17, 2025
u ● Thursday, December 18, 2025 Saturday, December 13, 2025

Most common answers, all recorded puzzles

  1. noon 45
  2. naan 35
  3. nana 35
  4. toot 32
  5. onion 31
  6. loll 30
  7. mama 28
  8. mamma 28
  9. acacia 26
  10. acai 26
  11. nene 26
  12. mini 25
  13. minim 25
  14. cocoon 24
  15. imam 24
  16. maim 24
  17. onto 24
  18. toon 24
  19. loon 24
  20. olio 24
  21. lilt 23
  22. till 23
  23. tilt 23
  24. aria 23
  25. mitt 23

Valid words the Bee rejected

Dictionary words the Bee never takes

Legitimate words (per the ENABLE list) that fit the letters but aren't official answers — usually judged too obscure.