The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

ABEKMOC

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Words
30
Points
104
Genius
72
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 30 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • aback

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • acme

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • back

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • backcomb

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • became

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • beck

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • become

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • bocce

    noun — A game, similar to bowls or pétanque, played on a long, narrow, dirt-covered court

    noun — One of the eight balls that the player throws in a game of bocce.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • bock

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • cacao

    noun — A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.

    noun — This tree's seed, the cocoa bean.

    Appeared in 18 recorded puzzles.

  • cake

    noun — A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.

    verb — Coat (something) with a crust of solid material.

    verb — To cackle like a goose.

    noun — A small mass of baked dough, especially a thin loaf from unleavened dough.

    noun — A thin wafer-shaped mass of fried batter; a griddlecake or pancake.

    noun — A block of any of various dense materials.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • came

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • cameo

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • camo

    noun — A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.

    verb — To camouflage.

    noun — Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting.

    verb — To put on camouflage clothing.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • coca

    noun — Any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America.

    noun — A pastry typically made and consumed in the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

    noun — The dried leaf of one of these plants, the South American shrub (Erythroxylum coca), widely cultivated in Andean countries, which is the source of cocaine.

    Appeared in 18 recorded puzzles.

  • cock

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • cocoa

    noun — The dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made.

    adjective — Of a light to medium brown colour, like that of cocoa powder.

    noun — Coconut palm.

    noun — An unsweetened brown powder made from roasted, ground cocoa beans, used in making chocolate, and in cooking.

    noun — A hot drink made with milk, cocoa powder, and sugar.

    noun — A serving of this drink.

    Appeared in 18 recorded puzzles.

  • coke

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • coma

    noun — A state of unconsciousness from which one may not wake up, usually induced by some form of trauma.

    noun — A cloud of dust surrounding the nucleus of a comet.

    noun — A defect characterized by diffuse, pear-shaped images that in an ideal image would appear as points.

    noun — A tuft or bunch, such as the assemblage of branches forming the head of a tree, a cluster of bracts when empty and terminating the inflorescence of a plant, or a tuft of long hairs on certain seeds.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • comb

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • combo

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • come

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • comeback

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • comma

    noun — The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set off parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.

    verb — To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas.

    noun — A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark.

    noun — Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia.

    noun — A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.

    noun — A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.

    Appeared in 9 recorded puzzles.

  • cook

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • cookbook

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • emcee

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • mace

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • mecca

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • mock

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • ab×1
  • ac×1
  • ba×2
  • be×3
  • bo×2
  • ca×5
  • co×12
  • em×1
  • ma×1
  • me×1
  • mo×1

Words by first letter and length

4568Σ
a 11·· 2
b 3121 7
c 105·2 17
e ·1·· 1
m 21·· 3
Σ 16923 30

The numbers

Genius today takes 72 points of 104 available. The average answer runs 4.8 letters.

Total points vs. all 440 recorded puzzles
7th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
15th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 19911 recorded answers

416 today34.5% all-time59 today22.9% all-time62 today20.1% all-time712.0% all-time83 today6.2% 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 Friday, April 17, 2026 Wednesday, April 15, 2026
b Friday, April 17, 2026 Tuesday, April 14, 2026
c ● Tuesday, April 14, 2026 Thursday, April 9, 2026
e Wednesday, April 15, 2026 Saturday, March 21, 2026
k Monday, April 6, 2026 Friday, April 3, 2026
m Friday, April 17, 2026 Wednesday, April 1, 2026
o Monday, April 13, 2026 Thursday, April 2, 2026

Most common answers, all recorded puzzles

  1. noon 45
  2. naan 35
  3. nana 35
  4. toot 32
  5. onion 31
  6. loll 30
  7. mama 28
  8. mamma 28
  9. acacia 26
  10. acai 26
  11. nene 26
  12. imam 25
  13. maim 25
  14. mini 25
  15. minim 25
  16. cocoon 24
  17. lilt 24
  18. till 24
  19. tilt 24
  20. aria 24
  21. mitt 24
  22. onto 24
  23. toon 24
  24. loon 24
  25. olio 24

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.