The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

ACILOTM

Monday, July 13, 2026

Edited by Sam Ezersky

Words
53
Points
194
Genius
135
Pangram
1

Official answers

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Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • acclaim

    verb — To shout; to call out.

    noun — An acclamation; a shout of applause.

    verb — To express great approval (for).

    verb — To salute or praise with great approval; to compliment; to applaud; to welcome enthusiastically.

    verb — To claim.

    verb — To declare by acclamations.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • ammo

    noun — Ammunition.

    verb — To load up on ammunition.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • atom

    noun — The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.

    noun — (history of science) A hypothetical particle posited by Greek philosophers as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter.

    noun — The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something.

    noun — In logical atomism, a fundamental fact that cannot be further broken down.

    noun — The smallest medieval unit of time, equal to fifteen ninety-fourths of a second.

    noun — A mote of dust in a sunbeam.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • atomic

    noun — An atomic operation.

    adjective — Of or relating to atoms; composed of atoms; monatomic.

    adjective — Employing or relating to nuclear energy or processes.

    adjective — Infinitesimally small.

    adjective — Unable to be split or made any smaller.

    adjective — Of an operation: guaranteed to complete either fully or not at all while waiting in a pause, and running synchronously when called by multiple asynchronous threads.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • calm

    noun — (in a person) The state of being calm; peacefulness; absence of worry, anger, fear or other strong negative emotion.

    verb — To make calm.

    adjective — (of a person) Peaceful, quiet, especially free from anger and anxiety.

    noun — (in a place or situation) The state of being calm; absence of noise and disturbance.

    noun — A period of time without wind.

    verb — To become calm.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • cami

    noun — A camisole.

    Appeared in 11 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.

  • claim

    noun — A demand of ownership made for something.

    verb — To demand ownership of.

    noun — The thing claimed.

    noun — The right or ground of demanding.

    noun — A new statement of something one believes to be the truth, usually when the statement has yet to be verified or without valid evidence provided.

    noun — A demand of ownership for previously unowned land.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • clam

    noun — A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

    verb — To dig for clams.

    noun — A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.

    verb — To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

    noun — Clamminess; moisture

    verb — To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • climactic

    adjective — Of, pertaining to, or constituting a climax; reaching a decisive moment or point of greatest tension.

  • climatic

    adjective — Of, relating to or influenced by climate.

  • 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.

  • comic

    noun — A comedian.

    adjective — Funny; amusing; comical.

    noun — A story composed of cartoon images arranged in sequence, usually with textual captions; a graphic novel.

    noun — A children's newspaper.

    adjective — Relating to comedy.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • comical

    adjective — Originally, relating to comedy.

    adjective — Funny, whimsically amusing.

    adjective — Laughable; ridiculous.

  • 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.

  • commit

    noun — The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction or source code into a source control repository), making it a permanent change.

    verb — To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.

    verb — To put in charge of a jailer; to imprison.

    verb — To have (a person) enter an establishment, such as a hospital or asylum, as a patient.

    verb — To do (something bad); to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.

    verb — To join a contest; to match; followed by with.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • committal

    noun — The act of entrusting something to someone.

    adjective — Of or relating to a committee.

    noun — The act of committing someone to confinement; an order for someone's imprisonment.

    noun — The act of perpetrating an offence.

    noun — The act of committing a body to the grave at a burial or to the furnace at a cremation.

    adjective — Of or relating to commitment.

  • imam

    noun — (usually capitalized) A Shi'ite Muslim leader.

    noun — One who leads the salat prayers in a mosque.

    Appeared in 20 recorded puzzles.

  • lama

    noun — A master of Tibetan Buddhism.

    noun — A South American mammal of the camel family, Lama glama, used as a domestic beast of burden and a source of wool and meat.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • lima

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • limit

    noun — A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.

    verb — To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries.

    noun — The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.

    noun — A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.

    noun — A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).

    noun — (as "the limit") A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc.

    Appeared in 7 recorded puzzles.

  • limo

    noun — An automobile body with seats and permanent top like a coupe, and with the top projecting over the driver and a projecting front.

    noun — An automobile with such a body.

    noun — A luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur.

    noun — An automobile for transportation to or from an airport, including sedans, vans, and buses.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • llama

    noun — A South American mammal of the camel family, Lama glama, used as a domestic beast of burden and a source of wool and meat.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • loam

    noun — A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due.

    verb — To cover, smear, or fill with loam.

    adjective — Made of loam; consisting of loam.

    noun — A mixture of sand, clay, and other materials, used in making moulds for large castings, often without a pattern.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • loom

    noun — A utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.

    noun — Loon (bird of order Gaviiformes)

    noun — A distorted appearance of something as seen indistinctly or from afar.

    verb — To appear indistinctly, eg. when seen on the horizon or through the murk.

    noun — A frame or machine of wood or other material, in which a weaver forms cloth out of thread; a machine for interweaving yarn or threads into a fabric, as in knitting or lace making.

    noun — The part of an oar which is between the grip or handle and the blade, the shaft.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • mail

    noun — A bag or wallet.

    verb — (ditransitive) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.

    noun — Armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together.

    verb — To arm with mail.

    noun — An old French coin worth half a denier.

    noun — A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • maillot

    noun — A one-piece swimsuit (for women)

    noun — A leotard or tights of stretchable jersey fabric, generally worn by dancers and gymnasts.

  • maim

    noun — A serious wound

    verb — To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

    Appeared in 20 recorded puzzles.

  • malic

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • mall

    noun — A pedestrianised street, especially a shopping precinct.

    verb — To beat with a mall, or mallet; to beat with something heavy; to bruise

    noun — An enclosed shopping centre.

    noun — An alley where the game of pall mall was played.

    noun — A public walk; a level shaded walk, a promenade.

    noun — A heavy wooden mallet or hammer used in the game of pall mall.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • malt

    noun — Malted grain (sprouted grain) (usually barley), used in brewing and otherwise.

    verb — To convert a cereal grain into malt by causing it to sprout (by soaking in water) and then halting germination (by drying with hot air) in order to develop enzymes that can break down starches and proteins in the grain.

    noun — Malt liquor, especially malt whisky.

    noun — A milkshake with malted milk powder added for flavor.

    noun — Maltose-rich sugar derived from malted grain.

    verb — To become malt.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • mama

    noun — (hypocoristic, usually childish) Mother, female parent.

    Appeared in 25 recorded puzzles.

  • mamma

    noun — The milk-secreting organ of female humans and other mammals which includes the mammary gland and the nipple or teat; a breast; an udder. (plural: mammae)

    noun — (hypocoristic, usually childish) Mother, female parent.

    noun — An accessory cloud like a mammary in appearance, which can form on the underside of most cloud genera

    Appeared in 25 recorded puzzles.

  • mammal

    noun — An animal of the class Mammalia, characterized by being warm-blooded, having hair and feeding milk to its young.

    noun — A vertebrate with three bones in the inner ear and one in the jaw.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • mica

    noun — Any of a group of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals characterized by highly perfect cleavage, so that they readily separate into very thin leaves, more or less elastic.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • militia

    noun — An army of trained civilians, which may be an official reserve army, called upon in time of need, the entire able-bodied population of a state which may also be called upon, or a private force not under government control.

    noun — The police in the Soviet Union and some related or successor states (e.g. modern Belarus).

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • mill

    noun — A grinding apparatus for substances such as grains, seeds, etc.

    verb — (followed by around, about, etc.) To move about in an aimless fashion.

    noun — A manufacturing plant for paper, steel, textiles, etc.

    noun — An establishment that handles a certain type of situation or procedure routinely, or produces large quantities of an item without much regard to quality, such as a divorce mill, a puppy mill, etc.

    noun — An institution awarding educational certificates not officially recognised

    noun — The building housing such a grinding apparatus.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • mimic

    noun — A person who practices mimicry, or mime.

    verb — To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.

    adjective — Pertaining to mimicry; imitative.

    noun — An imitation.

    verb — To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.

    adjective — Mock, pretended.

    Appeared in 14 recorded puzzles.

  • mitt

    noun — An oversized, protective glove such as an oven mitt or a baseball mitt.

    noun — A mitten

    noun — (especially in plural) A hand.

    Appeared in 17 recorded puzzles.

  • moat

    noun — A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.

    verb — To surround with a moat.

    noun — An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, either because of the nature of its products, services, franchise or other reason.

    noun — A circular lowland between a resurgent dome and the walls of the caldera surrounding it.

    noun — A hill or mound.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • moil

    noun — Hard work.

    verb — To toil, to work hard.

    noun — The glass circling the tip of a blowpipe or punty, such as the residual glass after detaching a blown vessel, or the lower part of a gather.

    noun — Confusion, turmoil.

    noun — A spot; a defilement.

    verb — To churn continually; to swirl.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • moll

    noun — A female companion of a gangster, especially a former or current prostitute.

    adjective — Minor; in the minor mode

    noun — A prostitute or woman with loose sexual morals.

    noun — Bitch, slut; an insulting epithet applied to a female.

    noun — A girlfriend of a bikie.

    noun — A girlfriend of a surfie; blends with pejorative sense.

    Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

  • molt

    noun — The process of shedding or losing a covering of fur, feathers or skin etc.

    verb — To shed or lose a covering of hair or fur, feathers, skin, horns, etc, and replace it with a fresh one.

    verb — To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.

    noun — The skin or feathers cast off during the process of moulting.

    verb — To shed in such a manner.

    verb — To dissolve, disperse, vanish.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

  • momma

    noun — Mother

    noun — A voluptuous woman.

    noun — One's wife or girlfriend.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • moola

    noun — Money, cash.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • moot

    noun — A moot court.

    adjective — Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve.

    noun — A whisper, or an insinuation, also gossip or rumors.

    verb — To bring up as a subject for debate, to propose.

    noun — Vagina.

    noun — The stump of a tree; the roots and bottom end of a felled tree.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • motto

    noun — A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievement.

    noun — A sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, discourse, chapter, canto, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter; a short, suggestive expression of a guiding principle; a maxim.

    noun — A paper packet containing a sweetmeat, cracker, etc., together with a scrap of paper bearing a motto.

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • omit

    verb — To leave out or exclude.

    verb — To fail to perform.

    verb — To neglect or take no notice of.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

  • tatami

    noun — Straw matting, in a standard size, used as a floor covering in Japanese houses

    Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

  • tomatillo

    noun — A plant of the nightshade family originating in Mexico, Physalis philadelphica, cultivated for its tomato-like green to green-purple fruit surrounded by a thin papery skin.

  • tomato

    noun — A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.

    verb — To pelt with tomatoes

    noun — The savory fruit of this plant, red when ripe, treated as a vegetable in horticulture and cooking.

    noun — A shade of red, the colour of a ripe tomato.

    noun — A desirable-looking woman.

    noun — A stupid act or person.

    Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

  • tomcat

    noun — A tom, a male cat.

    verb — To prowl for sexual gratification.

    Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

  • tomtit

    noun — Petroica macrocephala, the miromiro or New Zealand tit, a bird of the Petroicidae (Australasian robin) family.

    Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • ac×1
  • am×1
  • at×2
  • ca×3
  • cl×4
  • co×6
  • im×1
  • la×1
  • li×3
  • ll×1
  • lo×2
  • ma×9
  • mi×5
  • mo×8
  • om×1
  • ta×1
  • to×4

Words by first letter and length

456789Σ
a 2·11·· 4
c 531112 13
i 1····· 1
l 52···· 7
m 13612·· 22
o 1····· 1
t ··4··1 5
Σ 27117413 53

The numbers

Genius today takes 135 points of 194 available. The average answer runs 5.1 letters.

Total points vs. all 380 recorded puzzles
44th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
67th percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 17231 recorded answers

427 today34.6% all-time511 today22.8% all-time67 today19.9% all-time74 today12.1% all-time81 today6.3% all-time93 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
a Sunday, July 12, 2026 Friday, July 3, 2026
c Monday, July 6, 2026 Monday, July 6, 2026
i Sunday, July 12, 2026 Thursday, June 25, 2026
l Saturday, July 11, 2026 Tuesday, June 2, 2026
m ● Thursday, July 9, 2026 Thursday, July 2, 2026
o Friday, July 10, 2026 Sunday, July 5, 2026
t Saturday, July 11, 2026 Saturday, July 11, 2026

Most common answers, all recorded puzzles

  1. noon 41
  2. naan 30
  3. nana 30
  4. onion 28
  5. toot 28
  6. loll 27
  7. mama 25
  8. mamma 25
  9. cocoon 23
  10. nene 23
  11. acacia 22
  12. acai 22
  13. bill 22
  14. loon 22
  15. aria 21
  16. onto 21
  17. toon 21
  18. cancan 21
  19. canna 21
  20. neon 21
  21. none 21
  22. olio 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.