The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

BDELOUF

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Words
50
Points
215
Genius
150
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 50 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • beef

    noun — The meat from a cow, bull or other bovine.

    adjective — Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.

    verb — To add weight or strength to; to beef up.

    noun — (plural: beefs) A grudge; dislike (of something or someone); lack of faith or trust (in something or someone); a reason for a dislike or grudge. (often + with)

    adjective — Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.

    verb — To complain.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • beefed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • befell

    verb — To happen to.

    verb — To happen.

    verb — To fall upon; fall all over; overtake

    verb — To fall.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • befoul

    verb — To make foul; to soil; to contaminate, pollute.

    verb — To stain or mar (for example with infamy or disgrace).

    verb — (specifically) To defecate on, to soil with excrement.

    verb — To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • befouled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • befuddle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • befuddled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • bluff

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • bluffed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • boffo

    noun — (chiefly in the world of entertainment) A great success; a hit.

    adjective — Outstanding; very good or successful.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • buff

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • buffed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • doff

    verb — To remove or tip a hat, as in greeting, salutation or as a mark of respect.

    verb — (clothing) To remove or take off, especially of clothing.

    verb — To get rid of, to throw off.

    verb — To strip; to divest; to undress.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • doffed

    verb — To remove or tip a hat, as in greeting, salutation or as a mark of respect.

    verb — (clothing) To remove or take off, especially of clothing.

    verb — To get rid of, to throw off.

    verb — To strip; to divest; to undress.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • doleful

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • duff

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • duffel

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • duffle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • feeble

    adjective — Deficient in physical strength

    adjective — Lacking force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; faint.

    verb — To make feeble; to enfeeble.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • feed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • feel

    verb — (heading) To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.

    verb — (heading) To use or experience the sense of touch.

    verb — To seem (through touch or otherwise).

    noun — A vague mental impression.

    noun — A quality of an object experienced by touch.

    verb — To be or become aware of.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • fell

    verb — To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.

    verb — To strike down, kill, destroy.

    adjective — Of a strong and cruel nature; eager and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.

    noun — (obsolete outside Britain) A rocky ridge or chain of mountains.

    noun — (obsolete outside Britain) A wild field or upland moor.

    noun — The stitching down of a fold of cloth; specifically, the portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • felled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • feud

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • feuded

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • flee

    verb — To run away; to escape.

    verb — To escape from.

    verb — To disappear quickly; to vanish.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • floe

    noun — A low, flat mass of floating ice.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • flood

    noun — A (usually disastrous) overflow of water from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.

    verb — To overflow, as by water from excessive rainfall.

    verb — To cover or partly fill as if by a flood.

    noun — A large number or quantity of anything appearing more rapidly than can easily be dealt with.

    verb — To provide (someone or something) with a larger number or quantity of something than can easily be dealt with.

    noun — A floodlight.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • flooded

    adjective — Filled with water from rain or rivers.

    adjective — (by extension) Overwhelmed with too much of something.

    verb — To provide (someone or something) with a larger number or quantity of something than can easily be dealt with.

    adjective — Filled with too much fluid.

    verb — To overflow, as by water from excessive rainfall.

    verb — To cover or partly fill as if by a flood.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • flub

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • flubbed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • flue

    noun — A pipe or duct that carries gaseous combustion products away from the point of combustion (such as a furnace).

    noun — An enclosed passageway in which to direct air or other gaseous current along.

    noun — In an organ flue pipe, the opening between the lower lip and the languet.

    noun — A woolly or downy substance; down, nap; a piece of this.

    adjective — Shallow; flat

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • fluff

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • fluffed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fobbed

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fold

    verb — To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.

    noun — A bend or crease.

    noun — An act of folding.

    verb — To become folded; to form folds.

    verb — To stir gently, with a folding action.

    verb — To give way on a point or in an argument.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • folded

    verb — To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.

    verb — To become folded; to form folds.

    verb — To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.

    verb — To stir gently, with a folding action.

    verb — To give way on a point or in an argument.

    verb — To fall over; to be crushed.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • food

    noun — Any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.

    noun — A foodstuff.

    noun — Anything that nourishes or sustains.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • fool

    noun — A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

    verb — To trick; to deceive

    verb — To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly

    noun — A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).

    noun — A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.

    noun — Buddy, dude, man.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • fooled

    verb — To trick; to deceive

    verb — To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • foul

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fouled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • fuddle

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fuddled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • fuel

    noun — Substance consumed to provide energy through combustion, or through chemical or nuclear reaction.

    verb — To provide with fuel.

    noun — Something that stimulates, encourages or maintains an action.

    verb — To exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater.

    noun — Substance that provides nourishment for a living organism; food.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • fueled

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • full

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • luff

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • offed

    verb — To kill.

    verb — To switch off.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • be×7
  • bl×2
  • bo×1
  • bu×2
  • do×3
  • du×3
  • fe×7
  • fl×10
  • fo×8
  • fu×5
  • lu×1
  • of×1

Words by first letter and length

456789Σ
b 224121 12
d 2·31·· 6
f 15294·· 30
l 1····· 1
o ·1···· 1
Σ 20516621 50

The numbers

Genius today takes 150 points of 215 available. The average answer runs 5.4 letters.

Total points vs. all 381 recorded puzzles
53rd percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
58th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 17278 recorded answers

420 today34.6% all-time55 today22.8% all-time616 today19.9% all-time76 today12.1% all-time82 today6.3% all-time91 today2.6% 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
b Saturday, March 14, 2026 Monday, March 9, 2026
d Sunday, March 15, 2026 Monday, January 26, 2026
e Monday, March 16, 2026 Friday, February 6, 2026
f ● Saturday, March 14, 2026 Sunday, January 4, 2026
l Monday, March 16, 2026 Sunday, March 15, 2026
o Saturday, March 14, 2026 Thursday, March 5, 2026
u Saturday, March 14, 2026 Friday, March 6, 2026

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.