The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

ABDORYL

Monday, August 31, 2026

Edited by Sam Ezersky

Words
60
Points
276
Genius
193
Pangrams
2

Official answers

Show the 60 answersHide answers

Pangrams highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • ably

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • adorably

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • allay

    noun — Alleviation; abatement; check.

    verb — To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.

    noun — An alloy.

    verb — To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.

    verb — To subside, abate, become peaceful.

    verb — To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • alloy

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • ally

    noun — A person, group, or state (etc) which is associated with another for a common cause; one united to another by treaty or common purpose; a confederate.

    verb — To unite, or form a connection between, as between families by marriage, or between princes and states by treaty, league, or confederacy.

    noun — A narrow street or passageway, especially one through the middle of a block giving access to the rear of lots or buildings.

    noun — A glass marble or taw.

    noun — A person, group, concept (etc) which is associated with another as a helper; a supporter; an auxiliary.

    noun — Anything akin to something else by structure, etc.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • badly

    adjective — Ill, unwell.

    adverb — In a bad manner.

    adverb — Very much; to a great degree.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • bald

    noun — A mountain summit or crest that lacks forest growth despite a warm climate conducive to such, as is found in many places in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

    verb — To become bald.

    adjective — Having no hair, fur or feathers.

    adjective — (by extension) Denuded of any hair- or fur-like covering.

    adjective — Of tyres: whose surface is worn away.

    adjective — (of a statement or account) Unembellished.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • baldly

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • ball

    noun — A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.

    noun — A round or ellipsoidal object.

    verb — To play basketball.

    noun — A very enjoyable time.

    verb — To form or wind into a ball.

    noun — A formal dance.

    Appeared in 19 recorded puzzles.

  • ballad

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • balladry

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • ballboy

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • ballyard

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • blab

    verb — To tell tales; to gossip without reserve or discretion.

    noun — Gossip; prattle.

    noun — One who blabs; a babbler; a telltale; a gossip or gossiper.

    Appeared in 19 recorded puzzles.

  • blabby

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • blob

    noun — A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.

    verb — To drop in the form of a blob or blobs

    noun — Acronym of binary large object. (a data type that allows storage of binary data often of indeterminate length).

    noun — In astronomy, a large cloud of gas. In particular, an extended Lyman-Alpha blob is a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy.

    noun — A bubble; a bleb.

    noun — A small freshwater fish (Cottus bairdii); the miller's thumb.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • blobby

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • blood

    noun — A member of the Los Angeles gang The Bloods.

    noun — A vital liquid flowing in the bodies of many types of animals that usually conveys nutrients and oxygen. In vertebrates, it is colored red by hemoglobin, is conveyed by arteries and veins, is pumped by the heart and is usually generated in bone marrow.

    verb — To cause something to be covered with blood; to bloody.

    noun — A family relationship due to birth, such as that between siblings; contrasted with relationships due to marriage or adoption (see blood relative, blood relation, by blood).

    noun — One of the four humours in the human body.

    noun — A blood test or blood sample.

  • bloody

    verb — To draw blood from one's opponent in a fight.

    adjective — Covered in blood.

    adverb — (intensifier) Used to express anger, annoyance, shock, or for emphasis.

    noun — (casual) bloody mary

    verb — To demonstrably harm the cause of an opponent.

    adjective — Characterised by bloodshed.

  • bola

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • bold

    noun — A dwelling; habitation; building.

    adjective — Courageous, daring.

    verb — To make (a font or some text) bold.

    adjective — Visually striking; conspicuous.

    adjective — (of typefaces) Having thicker strokes than the ordinary form of the typeface.

    adjective — Presumptuous, forward or impudent.

  • boldly

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • boll

    noun — The rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant.

    verb — To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.

    noun — An old dry measure equal to six bushels.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • bollard

    noun — A strong vertical post of timber or iron, fixed to the ground and/or on the deck of a ship, to which the ship's mooring lines etc are secured.

    noun — A similar post preventing vehicle access to a pedestrian area, to delineate traffic lanes, or used for security purposes.

  • bolo

    noun — A long, heavy, single-edged machete.

    verb — To attack or despatch with a bolo knife.

    noun — A soldier not capable of the minimum standards of marksmanship.

    verb — To fail to meet the minimum standards of marksmanship.

    noun — A string or leather necktie secured with an ornamental slide.

    verb — To dress (somebody) in a bolo.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • broadly

    adverb — Widely and openly.

    adverb — In a wide manner; liberally; in a loose sense.

  • dally

    verb — To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.

    noun — Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping.

    verb — To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal

    verb — To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet

    verb — To delay unnecessarily; to while away.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • doll

    noun — A toy in the form of a human.

    noun — A term of endearment: darling, sweetheart.

    noun — (sometimes offensive) An attractive young woman

    noun — A dollar.

    noun — (now possibly offensive) A good-natured, cooperative or helpful girl.

    noun — The smallest or pet pig in a litter.

    Appeared in 10 recorded puzzles.

  • dollar

    noun — Official designation for currency in some parts of the world, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Its symbol is $.

    noun — (by extension) Money generally.

    noun — Imported from the United States, and paid for in U.S. dollars. (Note: distinguish "dollar wheat", North American farmers' slogan, meaning a market price of one dollar per bushel.)

    noun — A quarter of a pound or one crown, historically minted as a coin of approximately the same size and composition as a then-contemporary dollar coin of the United States, and worth slightly more.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • dolly

    noun — A doll.

    verb — To hit a dolly.

    adjective — Pretty; attractive.

    noun — An offering of fruit or flowers.

    noun — A contrivance for stirring:

    noun — A tool with an indented head for shaping the head of a rivet.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • dolor

    noun — Sorrow, grief, misery or anguish.

    noun — A unit of pain used to theoretically weigh people's outcomes.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • drably

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • droll

    noun — A funny person; a buffoon, a wag.

    verb — To jest, to joke.

    adjective — Oddly humorous; whimsical, amusing in a quaint way; waggish.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • drolly

    adverb — In a droll, odd or humorous manner.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • drool

    noun — Saliva trickling from the mouth.

    verb — To secrete saliva, especially in anticipation of food.

    noun — Stupid talk.

    verb — To secrete any substance in a similar way.

    verb — To react to something with uncontrollable desire.

    verb — To talk nonsense; drivel.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • drooly

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • dryly

    adverb — In a dry manner.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • labor

    noun — Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.

    verb — To toil, to work.

    noun — That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.

    noun — Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.

    noun — A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.

    noun — The act of a mother giving birth.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • lady

    noun — An aristocratic title for a woman; the wife of a lord and/or a woman who holds the position in her own right; a title for a peeress, the wife of a peer or knight, and the daughters and daughters-in-law of certain peers.

    noun — The mistress of a household.

    noun — A high priestess.

    noun — A woman of breeding or higher class, a woman of authority.

    noun — The feminine of lord.

    noun — A title for someone married to a lord or gentleman.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • lard

    noun — Fat from the abdomen of a pig, especially as prepared for use in cooking or pharmacy.

    verb — To garnish or strew, especially with reference to words or phrases in speech and writing.

    verb — To stuff (meat) with bacon or pork before cooking.

    noun — Fatty meat from a pig; bacon, pork.

    verb — To smear with fat or lard.

    verb — To fatten; to enrich.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • load

    noun — A burden; a weight to be carried.

    noun — (often in the plural) A large number or amount.

    noun — A quantity of washing put into a washing machine for a wash cycle.

    verb — To put a load on or in (a means of conveyance or a place of storage).

    verb — To insert (an item or items) into an apparatus so as to ready it for operation, such as a reel of film into a camera, sheets of paper into a printer etc.

    noun — A certain number of articles or quantity of material that can be transported or processed at one time.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • lobby

    noun — An entryway or reception area; vestibule; passageway; corridor.

    verb — To attempt to influence (a public official or decision-maker) in favor of a specific opinion or cause.

    noun — Scouse (from lobscouse)

    noun — That part of a hall of legislation not appropriated to the official use of the assembly.

    noun — A class or group of people who try to influence public officials; collectively, lobbyists.

    noun — A virtual area where players can chat and find opponents for a game.

  • loblolly

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • lobo

    noun — A wolf.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • loll

    verb — To act lazily or indolently while reclining; to lean; to lie at ease.

    verb — To hang extended from the mouth, like the tongue of an animal heated from exertion.

    verb — To let (the tongue) hang from the mouth in this way.

    Appeared in 30 recorded puzzles.

  • lord

    noun — The master of the servants of a household; the master of a feudal manor

    verb — Domineer or act like a lord.

    noun — One possessing similar mastery over others; any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)

    noun — One possessing similar mastery in figurative senses (esp. as lord of ~)

    noun — The heavenly body considered to possess a dominant influence over an event, time, etc.

    noun — A hunchback.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • lordly

    adjective — Of or relating to a lord.

    adverb — In the manner of a lord. Showing command or nobility.

    adjective — Having the qualities of a lord; lordlike; noble

    adjective — Appropriate for, or suitable to, a lord; glorious.

    adjective — Proud; haughty; imperious; insolent.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • lordy

    interjection — Expressing mild emotion, such as exasperation or frustration.

    interjection — Expressing strong emotion, such as amazement.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • lorry

    noun — A motor vehicle for transporting goods, and in some cases people; a truck.

    verb — To transport by, or as if by, lorry.

    noun — A barrow or truck for shifting baggage, as at railway stations.

    noun — A small cart or wagon used on the tramways in mines to carry coal or rubbish.

    noun — A large, low, horse-drawn, four-wheeled wagon without sides; also, a similar wagon modified for use on railways.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • loyal

    adjective — Having or demonstrating undivided and constant support for someone or something.

    adjective — Firm in allegiance to a person or institution.

    adjective — Faithful to a person or cause.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • loyally

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • oddball

    noun — An eccentric or unusual person.

    adjective — Exotic, not mainstream.

    noun — A deviant stimulus that appears among repetitive stimuli during an experiment, to trigger an event-related potential in the participant.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • oddly

    adverb — In a peculiar manner; strangely; unusually.

    adverb — In a manner measured by an odd number.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • oral

    adjective — Spoken rather than written.

    adjective — Relating to the mouth.

    noun — Oral sex.

    noun — A spoken test or examination, particularly in a language class.

    noun — A physical examination of the mouth.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • orally

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • rally

    noun — A public gathering or mass meeting that is not mainly a protest and is organized to inspire enthusiasm for a cause.

    verb — To collect, and reduce to order, as troops dispersed or thrown into confusion; to gather again; to reunite.

    noun — Good-humoured raillery.

    verb — To tease; to chaff good-humouredly.

    noun — A protest or demonstration for or against something, but often with speeches and often without marching, especially in North America.

    noun — A sequence of strokes between serving and scoring a point.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • roll

    noun — The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled.

    verb — To cause to revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on an axis; to impel forward by causing to turn over and over on a supporting surface.

    noun — That which is rolled up.

    noun — A forward or backward roll in gymnastics; going head over heels. A tumble.

    noun — Something which rolls.

    noun — A swagger or rolling gait.

    Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

  • rollbar

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • royal

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • royally

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

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

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • ab×1
  • ad×1
  • al×3
  • ba×8
  • bl×6
  • bo×6
  • br×1
  • da×1
  • do×4
  • dr×6
  • la×3
  • lo×11
  • od×2
  • or×2
  • ra×1
  • ro×4

Words by first letter and length

45678Σ
a 22··1 5
b 82632 21
d 164·· 11
l 65111 14
o 1111· 4
r 12·2· 5
Σ 19181274 60

The numbers

Genius today takes 193 points of 276 available. The average answer runs 5.3 letters.

Total points vs. all 429 recorded puzzles
79th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
83rd percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 19363 recorded answers

419 today34.5% all-time518 today23.0% all-time612 today20.0% all-time77 today12.0% all-time84 today6.3% 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
a Saturday, August 29, 2026 Friday, July 3, 2026
b Tuesday, August 25, 2026 Tuesday, August 25, 2026
d Saturday, August 29, 2026 Thursday, August 6, 2026
l ● Friday, August 28, 2026 Tuesday, June 2, 2026
o Saturday, August 29, 2026 Monday, August 17, 2026
r Thursday, August 27, 2026 Saturday, August 1, 2026
y Friday, August 28, 2026 Wednesday, August 5, 2026

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 27
  8. mamma 27
  9. nene 26
  10. acacia 25
  11. acai 25
  12. cocoon 24
  13. onto 24
  14. toon 24
  15. mini 24
  16. minim 24
  17. loon 24
  18. olio 24
  19. aria 23
  20. imam 23
  21. maim 23
  22. mitt 23
  23. cancan 23
  24. canna 23
  25. neon 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.