The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

ELOPTUN

Friday, August 15, 2025

Words
50
Points
173
Genius
121
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 50 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • entente

    noun — An informal alliance or friendly understanding between two states.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • lent

    noun — A period of the ecclesiastical year preceding Easter, traditionally involving temporary abstention from certain foods and pleasures.

    verb — To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.

    noun — The second term of the academic year at some British schools.

    verb — To make a loan.

    verb — To be suitable or applicable, to fit.

    verb — To afford; to grant or furnish in general.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • lento

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • lone

    adjective — Solitary; having no companion.

    adjective — Isolated or lonely; lacking companionship.

    adjective — Sole; being the only one of a type.

    adjective — Situated by itself or by oneself, with no neighbours.

    adjective — Unfrequented by human beings; solitary.

    adjective — Single; unmarried, or in widowhood.

    Appeared in 16 recorded puzzles.

  • loon

    noun — An idler, a lout.

    noun — Any of various birds, of the order Gaviiformes, of North America and Europe that dive for fish and have a short tail, webbed feet and a yodeling cry.

    noun — A boy, a lad.

    noun — A harlot; mistress.

    noun — A simpleton.

    noun — A crazy or deranged person.

    Appeared in 24 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 8 recorded puzzles.

  • lunette

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • nene

    noun — The Hawaiian goose, Branta sandvicensis, which was designated the state bird of Hawaii in 1957.

    Appeared in 25 recorded puzzles.

  • neon

    noun — The chemical element (symbol Ne) with an atomic number of 10. The lightest of the noble gases, it is a colourless, odorless inert gas.

    adjective — (of a color) That resembles a neon light; extremely bright; fluorescent

    noun — A form or sample of the element.

    noun — Neon signs or lights, collectively.

    noun — A neon tetra fish.

    Appeared in 23 recorded puzzles.

  • nettle

    noun — Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.

    verb — Of the nettle plant and similar physical causes, to sting, causing a rash in someone.

    noun — Certain plants that have spines or prickles:

    noun — Certain non-stinging plants, mostly in the family Lamiaceae, that resemble the species of Urtica:

    noun — Loosely, anything which causes a similarly stinging rash, such as a jellyfish or sea nettle.

    verb — To pique, irritate, vex or provoke.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • noel

    noun — Christmas

    noun — A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediaeval origin, sung in honor of the birth of Christ; a Christmas carol.

    Appeared in 16 recorded puzzles.

  • none

    noun — A person without religious affiliation.

    adverb — To no extent, in no way.

    pronoun — Not any of a given number or group.

    noun — Those without any religious affiliation: atheists and others outside any organized religion.

    noun — A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.

    noun — The middle of the afternoon, normally between 2 and 4 pm.

    Appeared in 23 recorded puzzles.

  • nonet

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • noon

    noun — The ninth hour of the day counted from sunrise; around three o'clock in the afternoon.

    verb — To relax or sleep around midday

    noun — The letter ن in the Arabic script.

    noun — Time of day when the sun is in its zenith; twelve o'clock in the day, midday.

    noun — The corresponding time in the middle of the night; midnight.

    noun — The highest point; culmination.

    Appeared in 44 recorded puzzles.

  • nope

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • note

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • noun

    noun — (grammar, narrow sense) A word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.

    verb — To convert a word to a noun.

    noun — (grammar, now rare, broad sense) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.

    Appeared in 15 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 12 recorded puzzles.

  • onto

    adjective — (of a function) Assuming each of the values in its codomain; having its range equal to its codomain.

    preposition — Upon; on top of.

    preposition — Aware of.

    preposition — Being an onto function with a codomain of (see below).

    Appeared in 22 recorded puzzles.

  • open

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • opponent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • opulent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • peen

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • peloton

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • penne

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • pent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • penult

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • peon

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • pollen

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • pone

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • pontoon

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • potent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • punt

    noun — A kick made by a player who drops the ball and kicks it before it hits the ground.

    noun — A pontoon; a narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole.

    verb — To propel a punt or similar craft by means of a pole.

    verb — To equivocate and delay or put off (answering a question, addressing an issue, etc).

    verb — To make the best choice from a set of non-ideal alternatives.

    noun — A wild guess.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • teen

    noun — A teenager.

    adjective — Of or having to do with teenagers; teenage

    noun — Grief; sorrow; trouble.

    verb — To excite; to provoke; to vex; to afflict; to injure.

    verb — (provincial) To hedge or fence in; to enclose.

    noun — Vexation; anger; hate.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • tenet

    noun — An opinion, belief, or principle that is held as absolute truth by someone or especially an organization.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • tenon

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • tent

    noun — A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.

    verb — To go camping.

    noun — Attention; regard, care.

    verb — To attend to; to heed

    noun — A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.

    verb — (sometimes figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • tentpole

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • tone

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • tonne

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • toon

    noun — A cartoon, especially an animated television show.

    noun — A southeast Asian and Australian tree (Toona ciliata or Toona australis) of the mahogany family with fragrant dark red wood and flowers that yield a dye.

    noun — A town.

    noun — A melody.

    noun — A player's avatar or visible character in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

    noun — The wood of this tree.

    Appeared in 22 recorded puzzles.

  • tune

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • tuneup

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • tunnel

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • unlet

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • unopen

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • unpen

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • unto

    preposition — Up to, indicating a motion towards a thing and then stopping at it.

    conjunction — Up to the time or degree that; until.

    preposition — To, indicating an indirect object.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • untune

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • upon

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

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

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • en×1
  • le×2
  • lo×2
  • lu×2
  • ne×3
  • no×7
  • nu×1
  • on×1
  • op×3
  • pe×6
  • po×4
  • pu×1
  • te×5
  • to×3
  • tu×3
  • un×5
  • up×1

Words by first letter and length

45678Σ
e ···1· 1
l 41·1· 6
n 911·· 11
o 2··11 4
p 5132· 11
t 532·1 11
u 222·· 6
Σ 278852 50

The numbers

Genius today takes 121 points of 173 available. The average answer runs 4.9 letters.

Total points vs. all 418 recorded puzzles
35th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
59th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 18877 recorded answers

427 today34.5% all-time58 today23.0% all-time68 today20.0% all-time75 today12.0% all-time82 today6.3% all-time92.6% all-time101.3% all-time110.3% all-time120.1% all-time130.0% all-time

History

Today's letters, last seen

LetterLast in a puzzleLast as center
e Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Sunday, August 3, 2025
l Monday, August 11, 2025 Saturday, July 26, 2025
n ● Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Tuesday, August 5, 2025
o Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Wednesday, August 13, 2025
p Friday, August 8, 2025 Saturday, August 2, 2025
t Thursday, August 14, 2025 Friday, August 8, 2025
u Tuesday, August 12, 2025 Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Most common answers, all recorded puzzles

  1. noon 44
  2. naan 33
  3. nana 33
  4. onion 31
  5. toot 30
  6. loll 29
  7. mama 27
  8. mamma 27
  9. nene 25
  10. cocoon 24
  11. acacia 24
  12. acai 24
  13. loon 24
  14. olio 24
  15. imam 23
  16. maim 23
  17. cancan 23
  18. canna 23
  19. mini 23
  20. minim 23
  21. neon 23
  22. none 23
  23. aria 22
  24. mitt 22
  25. onto 22

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.