The Unofficial Hive

NYT Spelling Bee answers & analysis

DGHNORU

Friday, August 21, 2026

Edited by Sam Ezersky

Words
23
Points
95
Genius
66
Pangram
1

Official answers

Show the 23 answersHide answers

Pangram highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

  • dough

    noun — A thick, malleable substance made by mixing flour with other ingredients such as water, eggs, and/or butter, that is made into a particular form and then baked.

    verb — To make into dough.

    noun — Money.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • groundhog

    noun — A red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.

    noun — The aardvark.

  • guru

    noun — A Hindu or Sikh spiritual teacher.

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

    Appeared in 11 recorded puzzles.

  • hound

    noun — A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.

    verb — To persistently harass.

    noun — (in the plural) Projections at the masthead, serving as a support for the trestletrees and top to rest on.

    noun — Any canine animal.

    noun — (by extension) Someone who seeks something.

    noun — (by extension) A male who constantly seeks the company of desirable women.

  • hour

    noun — A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth of a day.

    noun — A season, moment, or time.

    noun — The time.

    noun — (in the plural) Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time.

    noun — (in the plural) The set times of prayer, the canonical hours, the offices or services prescribed for these, or a book containing them.

    noun — A distance that can be traveled in one hour.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • hung

    verb — To be or remain suspended.

    adjective — Suspended by hanging.

    verb — To float, as if suspended.

    verb — (of a ball in cricket, tennis, etc.) To rebound unexpectedly or unusually slowly, due to backward spin on the ball or imperfections of the ground.

    verb — To hold or bear in a suspended or inclined manner or position instead of erect.

    verb — To cause (something) to be suspended, as from a hook, hanger, hinges or the like.

    Appeared in 3 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.

  • nunhood

    No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  • rough

    noun — The unmowed part of a golf course.

    verb — To create in an approximate form.

    adjective — Not smooth; uneven.

    adverb — In a rough manner; rudely; roughly.

    noun — A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.

    noun — A scuffed and roughened area of the pitch, where the bowler's feet fall, used as a target by spin bowlers because of its unpredictable bounce.

    Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • unhood

    verb — To remove the hood from.

  • unhung

    adjective — (of a person) Not (yet) executed by hanging; unhanged.

    adjective — (of a painting) Not selected for exhibition.

    adjective — (of game) Cooked without being hung to mature.

    Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

Hints, no spoilers

Words by first two letters

  • do×2
  • dr×1
  • du×3
  • go×1
  • gr×2
  • gu×1
  • ho×2
  • hu×1
  • no×1
  • nu×1
  • ro×2
  • ru×1
  • ud×1
  • un×4

Words by first letter and length

456789Σ
d 321··· 6
g 111··1 4
h 21···· 3
n 1··1·· 2
r 12···· 3
u 2·2·1· 5
Σ 1064111 23

The numbers

Genius today takes 66 points of 95 available. The average answer runs 5.1 letters.

Total points vs. all 419 recorded puzzles
5th percentile
Word count vs. all recorded puzzles
3rd percentile

Word lengths, today vs. 18933 recorded answers

410 today34.4% all-time56 today23.0% all-time64 today20.0% all-time71 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 Tuesday, August 18, 2026 Thursday, August 6, 2026
g Thursday, August 20, 2026 Monday, August 10, 2026
h Tuesday, August 18, 2026 Sunday, August 9, 2026
n Thursday, August 20, 2026 Thursday, August 13, 2026
o Thursday, August 20, 2026 Monday, August 17, 2026
r Wednesday, August 19, 2026 Saturday, August 1, 2026
u ● Thursday, August 20, 2026 Friday, July 17, 2026

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. acacia 25
  10. acai 25
  11. nene 25
  12. cocoon 24
  13. loon 24
  14. olio 24
  15. aria 23
  16. imam 23
  17. maim 23
  18. cancan 23
  19. canna 23
  20. mini 23
  21. minim 23
  22. neon 23
  23. none 23
  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.