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.

• backroom^†  (BA8)
• aback  (AB5)
• arco  (AR4)
• back  (BA4)
• backcomb  (BA8)
• barback  (BA7)
• barbacoa  (BA8)
• barrack  (BA7)
• bock  (BO4)
• bookrack  (BO8)
• cacao  (CA5)
• camo  (CA4)
• carb  (CA4)
• carob  (CA5)
• carom  (CA5)
• cobra  (CO5)
• coca  (CO4)
• cock  (CO4)
• cocoa  (CO5)
• coma  (CO4)
• comb  (CO4)
• combo  (CO5)
• comma  (CO5)
• cook  (CO4)
• cookbook  (CO8)
• cork  (CO4)
• crab  (CR4)
• crack  (CR5)
• cram  (CR4)
• croak  (CR5)
• croc  (CR4)
• crock  (CR5)
• crook  (CR5)
• macro  (MA5)
• maraca  (MA6)
• mock  (MO4)
• morocco  (MO7)
• orca  (OR4)
• rack  (RA4)
• rock  (RO4)
• rococo  (RO6)
• romcom  (RO6)

Answer Definitions

• backroom^† (noun): A room near the rear of a premises, especially one that is only accessible to a privileged few and can be used as an inconspicuous meeting place.
• aback (adverb): Toward the rear; Phrase: 'to be taken ____', meaning 'surprised'.
• arco (adverb): A note in string instrument musical notation indicating that the bow is to be used in the usual way, usually following a passage that is played pizzicato.
• back (adjective): At or near the rear.
• backcomb (verb): To hold hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look.
• barback (noun): An assistant to a bartender
• barbacoa (noun): Meat slow-cooked over an open fire, characteristic of Latin American cuisine.
• barrack (noun): A building for soldiers, especially within a garrison; originally referred to temporary huts, now usually to a permanent structure or set of buildings.
• bock (noun): A strong dark beer brewed in the fall and aged through the winter for spring consumption.
• bookrack (noun): A rack for books; a bookshelf.
• cacao (noun): A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
• 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.
• carb (noun): Clipping of carbohydrate.
• carob (noun): An evergreen shrub or tree, Ceratonia siliqua, native to the Mediterranean region.
• carom (noun): A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball.
• cobra (noun): Any of various venomous snakes of the family Elapidae.
• coca (noun): Any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America.
• cock (noun): A male bird, especially: A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). A cock pigeon.
• cocoa (noun): The dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made.
• coma (noun): A state of unconsciousness from which one may not wake up, usually induced by some form of trauma.
• comb (noun): A toothed implement: A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser. The notched scale of a wire micrometer. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis. A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate.
• combo (noun): A small musical group.
• comma (noun): English Wikipedia has an article on:commaWikipedia The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
• cook (noun): A person who prepares food.
• cookbook (noun): A book or an encyclopedia of recipes and cookery tips.
• cork (noun): The bark of the cork oak, which is very light and porous and used for making bottle stoppers, flotation devices, and insulation material.
• crab (noun): A crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
• crack (verb): To form cracks.
• cram (verb): To press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
• croak (noun): A faint, harsh sound made in the throat.
• croc (noun): A crocodile.
• crock (noun): A stoneware or earthenware jar or storage container.
• crook (noun): A bend; turn; curve; curvature; a flexure.
• macro (adjective): Very large in scope or scale.
• maraca (noun): A Latin American percussion instrument consisting of a hollow-gourd rattle containing pebbles or beans and often played in pairs, as a rhythm instrument.
• mock (noun): An imitation, usually of lesser quality.
• morocco (noun): A soft leather, made from goatskin, used especially in bookbinding.
• orca (noun): A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.
• rack (noun): A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other
• rock (noun): A formation of minerals, specifically: The naturally occurring aggregate of solid mineral matter that constitutes a significant part of the earth's crust.
• rococo (noun): A style of baroque architecture and decorative art, from 18th-century France, having elaborate ornamentation.
• romcom (noun): Clipping of romantic comedy.