Game Summary

Table of Contents

As you scroll down this page, the clues get progressively more revealing. So scroll slowly!

1. Spelling Bee Grid
2. Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
3. Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
4. Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing) 🤯
5. Today's Complete Solution
6. Answer Definitions

If you're just here for a list of NYT Spelling Bee answers, Jump down to the answers ↓ (Spoiler Alert!).

Spelling Bee Grid

The following table shows the standard Spelling Bee summary grid, which lists word lengths across the top and letters down the left-hand side. The cell where the word lengths and letters intersect displays the number of words in today's puzzle with the corresponding first letter and word length.

Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding two letters.

Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding three letters.

Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing)

The table below lists all of the solutions to today's puzzle, but they're concealed. You can click the plus button (+) to reveal additional letters, one-by-one.

Concealed definitions are provided as additional clues. You can toggle concealment of the definitions by clicking on the concealer bar or the text that appears when the definition is visible.

Pangrams are marked with a dagger symbol (^†).

Today's Complete Solution

The words that follow are a complete listing of all acceptable words in today's New York Time Spelling Bee puzzle.

Next to the answer word you'll see the two-letter reference (2L Ref) in parentheses. We added that 2L Ref for easier translation of the spoiler-avoidant language you see on the Spelling Bee Forum and Twitter. The 2L Ref signifies a word's two start letters followed by the total number of letters in the word.

• aleph  (AL5)
• alpha  (AL5)
• apathy  (AP6)
• appall  (AP6)
• appeal  (AP6)
• appellate  (AP9)
• apple  (AP5)
• applet  (AP6)
• apply  (AP5)
• aptly  (AP5)
• epee  (EP4)
• happy  (HA5)
• heap  (HE4)
• heeltap  (HE7)
• help  (HE4)
• heptathlete  (HE11)
• hype  (HY4)
• lapel  (LA5)
• leap  (LE4)
• leapt  (LE5)
• paella  (PA6)
• palatal  (PA7)
• palatally  (PA9)
• palate  (PA6)
• pale  (PA4)
• palely  (PA6)
• palette  (PA7)
• pall  (PA4)
• pallet  (PA6)
• palp  (PA4)
• palpate  (PA7)
• papa  (PA4)
• papal  (PA5)
• papally  (PA7)
• papaya  (PA6)
• pappy  (PA5)
• pate  (PA4)
• patella  (PA7)
• patellae  (PA8)
• path  (PA4)
• patly  (PA5)
• patty  (PA5)
• payee  (PA5)
• peal  (PE4)
• peat  (PE4)
• peaty  (PE5)
• peel  (PE4)
• peep  (PE4)
• pellet  (PE6)
• pelt  (PE4)
• peppy  (PE5)
• petal  (PE5)
• petty  (PE5)
• phat  (PH4)
• phyla  (PH5)
• plat  (PL4)
• plate  (PL5)
• platelet  (PL8)
• play  (PL4)
• playlet  (PL7)
• plea  (PL4)
• pleat  (PL5)
• tapa  (TA4)
• tape  (TA4)
• teepee  (TE6)
• telepath  (TE8)
• telepathy^†  (TE9)
• teleplay  (TE8)
• teletype  (TE8)
• tepee  (TE5)
• type  (TY4)
• yappy  (YA5)
• yelp  (YE4)

Answer Definitions

• aleph (noun): The first letter of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, and its descendants in descended Semitic scripts, such as Phoenician 𐤀‎ (ʾ, ʾaleph), Aramaic 𐡀‎ (ʾ), Classical Syriac ܐ‎ ('ālaph), Hebrew א‎ (aleph) and Arabic ا‎ (ʾalif).
• alpha (noun): The name of the first letter of the Greek alphabet (Α,  α), followed by beta. In the Latin alphabet it is the predecessor to A.
• apathy (noun): Lack of emotion or motivation; lack of interest or enthusiasm towards something; disinterest (in something).
• appall (verb): To fill with horror; to dismay.
• appeal (noun): An application to a superior court or judge for a decision or order by an inferior court or judge to be reviewed and overturned. The legal document or form by which such an application is made; also, the court case in which the application is argued. A person's legal right to apply to court for such a review.
• appellate (adjective): That can be (legally) appealed to, especially of a court that hears appeals of decisions by a lower court.
• apple (noun): A common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates.
• applet (noun): a small program module that runs under the control of a larger application, typically a web browser
• apply (verb): To lay or place; to put (one thing to another)
• aptly (adverb): In an apt or suitable manner; fittingly; appropriately; suitably
• epee (noun): A sharp-pointed dueling sword with a bell-shaped guard, used (with the end blunted) in sport fencing.
• happy (adjective): Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous.
• heap (noun): A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
• heeltap (noun): A piece or wedge that raises the heel of a shoe.
• help (noun): Action given to provide assistance; aid.
• heptathlete (noun): An athlete who competes in the heptathlon.
• hype (noun): Promotion or propaganda; especially exaggerated claims.
• lapel (noun): Each of the two triangular pieces of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat that are folded back below the throat, leaving a triangular opening between.
• leap (verb): To jump.
• leapt (verb): simple past tense and past participle of leap
• paella (noun): A savory Valencian dish made of rice, cooked in a frying pan with vegetables and meat or shellfish.
• palatal (adjective): Pertaining to the palate.
• palatally (adverb): With reference to the palate.
• palate (noun): The roof of the mouth, separating the cavities of the mouth and nose in vertebrates.
• pale (adjective): Light in color.
• palely (adverb): In a light manner; lightly.
• palette (noun): A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours.
• pall (noun): Senses relating to cloth. Fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes. A heavy cloth laid over a coffin or tomb; a shroud laid over a corpse. A piece of cardboard, covered with linen and embroidered on one side, used to cover the chalice during the Eucharist. A cloth used for various purposes on the altar in a church, such as a corporal (“cloth on which elements of the Eucharist are placed”) or frontal (“drapery covering the front of an altar”).
• pallet (noun): A portable platform, usually designed to be easily moved by a forklift, on which goods can be stacked, for transport or storage.
• palp (noun): Synonym of pedipalp.
• palpate (verb): To examine or otherwise explore through touch, particularly in reference to an area or organ of the human body.
• papa (noun): Dad, daddy, father; a familiar or old-fashioned term of address to one’s father.
• papal (adjective): Having to do with the pope or the papacy.
• papally (adverb): in papal fashion
• papaya (noun): A tropical American evergreen tree, Carica papaya, having large, yellow, edible fruit
• pappy (adjective): Like pap; soft; mushy.
• pate (noun): The head, particularly the top or crown.
• patella (noun): The sesamoid bone of the knee; the kneecap.
• patellae (noun): plural of patella
• path (noun): A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
• patly (adverb): In a pat manner; fitly, seasonably, conveniently, appositely.
• patty (noun): A flattened portion of ground meat or a vegetarian equivalent, usually round but sometimes square in shape.
• payee (noun): one to whom money is paid.
• peal (noun): A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc.
• peat (noun): Soil formed of dead but not fully decayed plants found in bog areas, often burned as fuel.
• peaty (adjective): Of or resembling peat; peatlike.
• peel (verb): To remove the skin or outer covering of.
• peep (noun): A short, soft, high-pitched sound, as made by a baby bird.
• pellet (noun): A small, compressed, hard chunk of matter.
• pelt (noun): The skin of a beast with the hair on; a raw or undressed hide; a skin preserved with the hairy or woolly covering on it.
• peppy (adjective): Full of pep; energetic, cheerful, and vigorous; bouncy
• petal (noun): One of the component parts of the corolla of a flower. It applies particularly, but not necessarily only, when the corolla consists of separate parts, that is when the petals are not connately fused. Petals are often brightly colored.
• petty (adjective): Having little or no importance.
• phat (adjective): Excellent; cool; very good.
• phyla (noun): plural of phylum
• plat (noun): A plot of land; a lot.
• plate (noun): A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.
• platelet (noun): A small colorless disk-shaped particle found in the blood of mammals, which plays an important role in the formation of blood clots.
• play (verb): To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
• playlet (noun): A short play (dramatic work).
• plea (noun): An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.
• pleat (noun): A fold in the fabric of a garment, usually a skirt, as a part of the design of the garment, with the purpose of adding controlled fullness and freedom of movement, or taking up excess fabric. There are many types of pleats, differing in their construction and appearance.
• tapa (noun): A kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry.
• tape (noun): Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.
• teepee (noun): A cone-shaped tent traditionally used by many native peoples of the Great Plains of North America.
• telepath (noun): A person with telepathic ability, capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.
• telepathy^† (noun): The capability to communicate directly by psychic means; the sympathetic affection of one mind by the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of another at a distance, without communication through the ordinary channels of sensation.
• teleplay (noun): A script formatted like a screenplay, but written to be made into an episode of a television show.
• teletype (noun): A telegraph that automatically prints transmited messages in letters rather than Morse code or other symbols, typically resembling a typewriter in appearance.
• tepee (noun): Alternative form of teepee
• type (noun): A grouping based on shared characteristics; a class.
• yappy (adjective): Of a dog, yapping in an annoying manner.
• yelp (noun): An abrupt, high-pitched noise or utterance.