The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

ABDHRTI

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Words
28
Points
124
Genius
86
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 28 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • aria

    noun — A musical piece written typically for a solo voice with orchestral accompaniment in an opera or cantata.

    Appeared in 21 recorded puzzles.

  • arid

    adjective — Very dry.

    adjective — Devoid of value.

    adjective — Describing a very dry climate. Typically defined as less than 25 cm or 10 inches of rainfall annually.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • atria

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 15 recorded puzzles.

  • bait

    noun — Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.

    noun — Anything which allures; something used to lure or entice someone or something into doing something

    verb — To attract with bait; to entice.

    verb — To intentionally annoy, torment, or threaten by constant rebukes or threats; to harass.

    noun — Food containing poison or a harmful additive to kill animals that are pests.

    verb — To affix bait to a trap or a fishing hook or fishing line.

    Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

  • bird

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • birdbath

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • birria

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • birth

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • braid

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • briar

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • dirt

    noun — Soil or earth.

    verb — To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty

    noun — A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance.

    noun — Previously unknown facts, or the invented "facts", about a person.

    noun — Meanness; sordidness.

    noun — In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • drib

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • habit

    noun — An action performed on a regular basis.

    noun — An action performed repeatedly and automatically, usually without awareness.

    noun — An addiction.

    noun — A long piece of clothing worn by monks and nuns.

    noun — A piece of clothing worn uniformly for a specific activity.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • habitat

    noun — Conditions suitable for an organism or population of organisms to live.

    noun — A place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs.

    noun — A terrestrial or aquatic area distinguished by geographic, abiotic and biotic features, whether entirely natural or semi-natural.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • hair

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • rabbi

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • rabbit

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • rabid

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • radii

    noun — A line segment between any point of a circle or sphere and its center.

    noun — The long bone in the forearm, on the side of the thumb.

    noun — The length of this line segment.

    noun — Anything resembling a radius, such as the spoke of a wheel, the movable arm of a sextant, or one of the radiating lines of a spider's web.

    noun — The lighter bone (or fused portion of bone) in the forelimb of an animal.

    noun — One of the major veins of the insect wing, between the subcosta and the media; the vein running along the costal edge of the discal cell.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • raid

    noun — An attack or invasion for the purpose of making arrests, seizing property, or plundering

    noun — A quick hostile or predatory incursion or invasion in a battle.

    noun — A large group in a massively multiplayer online game, consisting of multiple parties who team up to defeat a powerful enemy.

    noun — An activity initiated at or towards the end of a live broadcast by the broadcaster that sends its viewers to a different broadcast, primarily intended to boost the viewership of the receiving broadcaster. This is frequently accompanied by a message in the form of a hashtag that is posted in the broadcast's chat by the viewers.

    verb — To lure from another; to entice away from.

    verb — To indulge oneself by taking from.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • raita

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 15 recorded puzzles.

  • ribbit

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • third

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • tiara

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 15 recorded puzzles.

  • tibia

    noun — The inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone

    noun — The second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.

    noun — The third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.

    noun — A musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.

    Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

  • tidbit

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • trait

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 15 recorded puzzles.

  • triad

    noun — A grouping of three.

    noun — A word of three syllables.

    noun — A branch of a Chinese underground criminal society, mostly based in Hong Kong.

    noun — On a CRT display, a group of three neighbouring phosphor dots, coloured green, red, and blue.

    noun — A chord consisting of a root tone, the tone two degrees higher, and the tone four degrees higher in a given scale.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • ar×2
  • at×1
  • ba×1
  • bi×4
  • br×2
  • di×1
  • dr×1
  • ha×3
  • ra×6
  • ri×1
  • th×1
  • ti×3
  • tr×2

Words by first letter and length

45678Σ
a 21··· 3
b 231·1 7
d 2···· 2
h 11·1· 3
r 142·· 7
t ·51·· 6
Σ 814411 28

The numbers

Genius today takes 86 points of 124 available. The average answer runs 5.0 letters.

Total points vs. all 382 recorded puzzles
12th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
10th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 17315 recorded answers

48 today34.6% all-time514 today22.8% all-time64 today19.9% all-time71 today12.1% all-time81 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 Tuesday, August 12, 2025 Saturday, July 19, 2025
b Saturday, August 9, 2025 Thursday, July 31, 2025
d Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Monday, August 11, 2025
h Tuesday, August 12, 2025 Tuesday, July 22, 2025
i ● Monday, August 11, 2025 Saturday, August 9, 2025
r Tuesday, August 12, 2025 Monday, July 21, 2025
t Tuesday, August 12, 2025 Friday, August 8, 2025

Most common answers, all recorded puzzles

  1. noon 42
  2. naan 30
  3. nana 30
  4. onion 29
  5. toot 28
  6. loll 28
  7. mama 25
  8. mamma 25
  9. cocoon 23
  10. loon 23
  11. nene 23
  12. acacia 22
  13. acai 22
  14. bill 22
  15. neon 22
  16. none 22
  17. olio 22
  18. aria 21
  19. onto 21
  20. toon 21
  21. cancan 21
  22. canna 21
  23. lilt 20
  24. till 20
  25. tilt 20

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.