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.

• javelin^†  (JA7)
• javelina^†  (JA8)
• alien  (AL5)
• alive  (AL5)
• allele  (AL6)
• anal  (AN4)
• annal  (AN5)
• anneal  (AN6)
• anvil  (AN5)
• avail  (AV5)
• avian  (AV5)
• eave  (EA4)
• elan  (EL4)
• inane  (IN5)
• jail  (JA4)
• java  (JA4)
• jean  (JE4)
• lain  (LA4)
• lanai  (LA5)
• lane  (LA4)
• lava  (LA4)
• lave  (LA4)
• lean  (LE4)
• leave  (LE5)
• leaven  (LE6)
• lineal  (LI6)
• naan  (NA4)
• nail  (NA4)
• naive  (NA5)
• nana  (NA4)
• naval  (NA5)
• nave  (NA4)
• navel  (NA5)
• ninja  (NI5)
• vain  (VA4)
• vale  (VA4)
• valve  (VA5)
• vane  (VA4)
• vanilla  (VA7)
• vanillin  (VA8)
• veal  (VE4)
• venal  (VE5)
• venial  (VE6)
• vial  (VI4)
• villa  (VI5)
• villain  (VI7)
• villanelle  (VI10)

Answer Definitions

• javelin^† (noun): A light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon.
• javelina^† (noun): The peccary, especially the collared peccary.
• alien (noun): Any life form of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
• alive (adjective): Having life; living; not dead.
• allele (noun): One of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given position, or locus, on a chromosome.
• anal (adjective): of, related to, intended for or involving the anus.
• annal (noun): The record of a single event or item.
• anneal (verb): To subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
• anvil (noun): A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
• avail (verb): To turn to the advantage of.
• avian (adjective): Characteristic of or pertaining to birds, or to bird-like or flying creatures.
• eave (noun): Alternative form of eaves (“the underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building”)
• elan (noun): Uncommon spelling of élan.
• inane (adjective): Lacking sense or meaning (often to the point of boredom or annoyance)
• jail (noun): A place or institution for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a place where people are held for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
• java (noun): A blend of coffee imported from the island of Java.
• jean (noun): Denim.
• lain (verb): past participle of lie (“to be oriented in a horizontal position, situated”)
• lanai (noun): A Hawaiian-style roofed patio.
• lane (noun): A road, street, or similar thoroughfare.
• lava (noun): The molten rock ejected by a volcano from its crater or fissured sides.
• lave (verb): To pour or throw out, as water; lade out; bail; bail out.
• lean (verb): To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
• leave (verb): To have a consequence or remnant. To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely.
• leaven (noun): Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
• lineal (adjective): Having an ancestral relationship to mothers, fathers, grandparents, (etc.) and having a descendant relationship to sons, daughters, grandchildren (etc.), exclusive of collateral siblings.
• naan (noun): A type of round, flat bread baked in a tandoor popular in South and Central Asian cuisine.
• nail (noun): The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
• naive (adjective): Lacking worldly experience, wisdom, or judgement; unsophisticated.
• nana (noun): A banana.
• naval (adjective): Of or relating to a navy.
• nave (noun): The middle or body of a church, extending from the transepts to the principal entrances.
• navel (noun): The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
• ninja (noun): A person trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
• vain (adjective): Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason.
• vale (noun): A valley.
• valve (noun): A device that controls the flow of a gas or fluid through a pipe.
• vane (noun): A weather vane.
• vanilla (noun): Any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
• vanillin (noun): A chemical compound, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, that is the primary constituent of vanilla.
• veal (noun): The flesh of a calf (i.e. a young bovine) used for food.
• venal (adjective): Venous; pertaining to veins.
• venial (adjective): Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.
• vial (noun): A glass vessel or bottle, especially a small tube-shaped bottle used to store medicine, perfume or other chemicals.
• villa (noun): A house, often larger and more expensive than average, in the countryside or on the coast, often used as a retreat.
• villain (noun): (Can we clean up this sense?) A vile, wicked person. An extremely depraved person, or one capable or guilty of great crimes. A deliberate scoundrel.
• villanelle (noun): A type of poem, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes.