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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • lent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 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 23 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 23 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 22 recorded puzzles.

  • nettle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 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 22 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 42 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 14 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 21 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • tenet

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

  • tenon

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • tent

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 13 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 21 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

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 7 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 383 recorded puzzles
35th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
58th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 17359 recorded answers

427 today34.7% all-time58 today22.8% all-time68 today19.9% all-time75 today12.1% all-time82 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
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 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. lull 20
  24. lulu 20
  25. lilt 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.