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BuzzyWords

Your Spelling Bee Companion for Saturday, May 23, 2026

A field guide for the A C D E I N Y hive: how many words you need, strategies for finding them, and (if you turn hint mode off) the full word lists you need to reach Genius and Queen Bee today.

Open SolverArchive

Today's Board

acdeiny

Verified Answers

61

Disputed Words

34

Pangrams

1

Score for Queen Bee

307

Genius estimate: 215 points

Verified Answers

61

Find every accepted word in today's source list

Pangrams

1

Use all seven letters

Disputed Words

34

In our dictionary but not the Spelling Bee list

Puzzle Snapshot

Solve The Hive Before The Spoilers

This page is currently in hint mode: you get the board, counts, estimated score targets, and strategy prompts without answer words. Reveal specific words only when you are ready to check your solve.

Today's Read

Broad board with one perfect pangram and lots of doubled-letter traps

The A-center hive is generous on raw volume, but it still hides points behind repeated letters and long branching families. Start by hunting the single seven-letter all-letter answer, then work the C-A and D-E stems that spawn several six- to nine-letter payoffs. Save the one-point cleanup for the end, because this board reaches 307 points and rewards long-word momentum first.

Verified answers

61

Max score

307

Genius

215

1 pangram

Pangram Hunt

Start by forcing every letter into longer shapes before clearing short entries. Pangrams are the fastest way to move the score.

307 possible points

Point Density

The current candidate pool estimates a Genius target around 215 points. Longer words matter more than raw word count.

61 verified answers

Queen Bee Path

Use the word lists below to scoop up every point you need to reach Queen Bee.

Study mode

Definition Pass

Click unfamiliar words to reveal their definitions and cement them in your memory for next time.

Pattern Prompts

Work The Board Without Reveals

  • Perfect pangram first: There is only one pangram, and it is perfect, so solving that seven-letter shape early gives you a fast 14-point jump and locks every letter into place. Examples: cyanide.
  • DEAD / DECAD branches: The DEA- and DECA- stems branch into multiple medium and long answers, so they are the cleanest route to Genius before you mop up short words. Examples: deaden, deadened, decade, decadence.
  • CAND / CANN family: Today's board pays off when you keep extending C-A-N shapes through doubled consonants and longer endings instead of stopping at the first five-letter hit. Examples: candid, candidacy, candied, canny.
  • Double-letter pressure: Repeated letters are not optional decoration on this hive; several valuable answers depend on doubled D, N, or Y patterns that are easy to skip if you treat the board too strictly. Examples: addenda, caddied, cayenne, nannied.
  • Short N-A cleanup last: 14 verified answers are only worth one point, and many of the N-A mini-words are pure cleanup after the big stems are exhausted. Examples: naan, nada, nana, naiad.

Common Prefixes

  • AC

    AC- drives both the chemistry-flavored set and several long scoring branches, so it is one of the first prefixes worth drilling.

    Examples: acacia, accede, acidic, acidy

  • CA

    CA- is the board's workhorse opener, ranging from short cleanup to the longest C-family payoffs.

    Examples: cadence, candied, canine, cayenne

  • DE

    DE- produces both straightforward score builders and the more lucrative long-word branches tied to decay and deaden patterns.

    Examples: deaden, deadened, decade, decayed

Common Suffixes

  • -IDE

    The -IDE ending shows up in both a core short answer and the pangram, making it a useful finishing shape once you see the chemistry angle.

    Examples: aide, cyanide

  • -IED

    Past-tense-looking -IED endings are productive here and reward you for pushing doubled consonants all the way to the finish.

    Examples: caddied, candied, nannied

  • -INE

    The -INE ending helps tie together one common adjective/noun lane and one longer biology-flavored answer.

    Examples: adenine, canine

Progressive Help

Pangram Hints

No-spoiler nudge

There is one pangram, and it is a seven-letter science word rather than a plain everyday noun.

Pattern hint

It ends with -IDE and uses Y without doubling any letters.

Reveal

If you want the full all-letter answer, reveal it here.

Reveal words: cyanide

Spoiler Control

Notable Words

Why these matter

  • cyanide

    CYANIDE is the only pangram and it is perfect, so it is the cleanest early checkpoint for whether you have mapped the whole hive correctly.

  • candidacy

    CANDIDACY is the longest score on the board, and it pays off if you keep extending the CAND- family instead of stopping at shorter wins.

  • decadence

    DECADENCE turns the DECA- branch into a major scoring lane and helps justify revisiting DECAY and DECADE once those appear.

  • deadened

    DEADENED shows how heavily this puzzle rewards doubled letters; if you are not repeating D and E aggressively, you leave points behind.

  • addenda

    ADDENDA is both strategically useful and easy to miss because the plural ending feels less natural than the shorter ADDEND stem.

  • cayenne

    CAYENNE is a strong reminder that Y is not just pangram filler here; it anchors one of the board's better seven-letter payoffs.

  • niacin

    NIACIN is a compact science-flavored answer that fits the same general register as the pangram without giving away the whole chemistry lane.

Hard Finds

Tricky Accepted Words

  • acai

    Short, common in food writing, and still easy to skip because it looks like a bonus proper noun at first glance.

  • canid

    This zoological term is cleanly legal today, even if many solvers stop at CANINE and never back down to the shorter form.

  • ennead

    A high-value classical number word that is easier to miss than the more ordinary D-E or C-A branches.

  • naiad

    The vowel pattern feels slippery, but it is a verified answer and a good reminder to revisit mythic-looking forms.

  • niacin

    This one is worth chasing because it uses the board's chemistry / biology flavor without leaning on the obvious pangram lane.

  • nannied

    The doubled N and doubled D make this a classic “I thought I tried that” miss late in the solve.

Disputed Candidates

Plausible Rejections

  • accidence

    ACCIDENCE fits the hive and BuzzyWords can generate it, but it was not verified in today's source answer list.

  • accidie

    ACCIDIE fits the hive and BuzzyWords can generate it, but it was not verified in today's source answer list.

  • acedia

    ACEDIA fits the hive and BuzzyWords can generate it, but it was not verified in today's source answer list.

  • candida

    It looks especially plausible because the board already accepts CANDID and CANDIED, but today's verified source list stops short of this form.

  • decadency

    The board accepts DECADENCE, so this variant is an easy overreach that fits the letters without making the official list.

  • dyadic

    The letters and repeated-Y shape work, but the verified answer set does not include this extension today.

  • indican

    INDICAN fits the hive and BuzzyWords can generate it, but it was not verified in today's source answer list.

  • yeaned

    YEANED fits the hive and BuzzyWords can generate it, but it was not verified in today's source answer list.

Answer Vault

All The Words You Need And A Few You Don't.

Trusted words are those you'll need to solve the puzzle. Disputed words are the ones we found in our dictionary that don't appear in the Spelling Bee's curated list. But we thought you might like to see them anyway.