The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

DGNORTU

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Words
40
Points
164
Genius
114
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 40 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • donut

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • dour

    adjective — Stern, harsh and forbidding.

    adjective — Unyielding and obstinate.

    adjective — Expressing gloom or melancholy; sullenly unhappy.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • drug

    noun — A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.

    verb — To administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent.

    verb — To pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty.

    noun — A drudge.

    noun — A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.

    noun — Anything, such as a substance, emotion or action, to which one is addicted.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • dugong

    noun — A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the genus Dugong, found in tropical regions.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • dugout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • dung

    noun — Manure; animal excrement.

    verb — To fertilize with dung.

    verb — To hit or strike.

    verb — To discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.

    noun — A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.

    verb — (calico printing) To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • dunno

    noun — An utterance of the word dunno.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • gourd

    noun — Any of the trailing or climbing vines producing fruit with a hard rind or shell, from the genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita (in Cucurbitaceae).

    noun — A hard-shelled fruit from a plant in Lagenaria or Cucurbita.

    noun — The dried and hardened shell of such fruit, made into a drinking vessel, bowl, spoon, or other objects designed for use or decoration.

    noun — Any of the climbing or trailing plants from the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes watermelon, pumpkins, and cucumbers.

    noun — Loaded dice.

    noun — Head.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • gout

    noun — An extremely painful inflammation of joints, especially of the big toe, caused by a metabolic defect resulting in the accumulation of uric acid in the blood and the deposition of urates around the joints.

    verb — To spurt.

    noun — Taste; relish

    noun — (usually followed by of) A spurt or splotch.

    noun — A disease of wheat and cornstalks, caused by insect larvae.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • ground

    noun — The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.

    verb — To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

    verb — To reduce to smaller pieces by crushing with lateral motion.

    adjective — Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

    noun — Terrain.

    noun — Soil, earth.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • groundout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • grout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • grunt

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • guru

    noun — A Hindu or Sikh spiritual teacher.

    noun — (sometimes humorous) An influential advisor or mentor.

    Appeared in 11 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.

  • orotund

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • outdo

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • outdoor

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • outgo

    noun — The act or process of going out.

    verb — To go out, to set forth.

    noun — A quantity of a substance or thing that has flowed out; an outflow.

    noun — An expenditure, cost or outlay.

    verb — To go further; to exceed or surpass; go beyond.

    verb — To overtake; to travel faster than.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • outgun

    verb — To defeat in terms of firepower.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • outro

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • outrun

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • rotgut

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • rotund

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • round

    adverb — So as to form a circle or trace a circular path, or approximation thereof.

    preposition — Defining a circle or closed curve containing a thing.

    noun — A circular or spherical object or part of an object.

    verb — To shape something into a curve.

    adjective — (physical) Shape.

    verb — To speak in a low tone; whisper; speak secretly; take counsel.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • rout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • rung

    noun — A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.

    verb — Of a bell, etc., to produce a resonant sound.

    adjective — Of a pig: having a ring through the nose.

    noun — A crosspiece between legs of a chair.

    noun — A position in a hierarchy.

    noun — A floor timber in a ship.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • runout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • runt

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • tour

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • tout

    noun — Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.

    verb — To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag; to promote.

    noun — In the game of solo, a proposal to win all eight tricks.

    noun — A person, at a racecourse, who offers supposedly inside information on which horse is likely to win.

    noun — A spy for a smuggler, thief, or similar.

    noun — An informer in the Irish Republican Army.

    Appeared in 10 recorded puzzles.

  • trout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • turn

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • turnout

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • tutor

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • tutu

    noun — A ballet skirt made of layered stiff but light netting.

    noun — Any of the genus Coriaria of shrubs and trees found in New Zealand.

    Appeared in 15 recorded puzzles.

  • udon

    noun — A Japanese wheat noodle

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • undo

    noun — An operation that reverses a previous action.

    verb — To reverse the effects of an action.

    verb — To unfasten.

    verb — To impoverish or ruin, as in reputation; to cause the downfall of.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • unground

    verb — To remove a connection to ground potential.

    adjective — Not having been ground; unpulverized.

    verb — To free from the punishment of being grounded (restricted to home).

    Appeared in 2 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.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • do×2
  • dr×1
  • du×4
  • go×2
  • gr×4
  • gu×1
  • no×1
  • or×1
  • ou×6
  • ro×4
  • ru×3
  • to×2
  • tr×1
  • tu×4
  • ud×1
  • un×3

Words by first letter and length

456789Σ
d 322··· 7
g 231··1 7
n 1····· 1
o ·322·· 7
r 313··· 7
t 42·1·· 7
u 3···1· 4
Σ 16118311 40

The numbers

Genius today takes 114 points of 164 available. The average answer runs 5.1 letters.

Total points vs. all 418 recorded puzzles
31st percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
38th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 18877 recorded answers

416 today34.5% all-time511 today23.0% all-time68 today20.0% all-time73 today12.0% all-time81 today6.3% all-time91 today2.6% 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
d Thursday, December 4, 2025 Thursday, December 4, 2025
g Friday, December 12, 2025 Wednesday, December 10, 2025
n Friday, December 12, 2025 Monday, November 17, 2025
o Friday, December 12, 2025 Saturday, December 6, 2025
r Tuesday, December 9, 2025 Sunday, November 16, 2025
t Wednesday, December 10, 2025 Friday, November 7, 2025
u ● Saturday, December 6, 2025 Tuesday, November 4, 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.