Your Spelling Bee Companion for Sunday, May 24, 2026
A field guide for the K G I N O T U 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.
Today's Board
Verified Answers
26
Disputed Words
6
Pangrams
1
Score for Queen Bee
131
Genius estimate: 92 points
Verified Answers
26
Find every accepted word in today's source list
Pangrams
1
Use all seven letters
Disputed Words
6
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
Tight board with one long-word ladder and a single pangram
The K-center hive is compact at 26 verified answers, so this is a board where long-word families matter more than raw volume. Start with UN- builds and doubled N/T patterns, because that is where the only pangram and both 10-letter payoffs live. After that, sweep the shorter OI and OO cleanup words once the big K stems are already banked.
Verified answers
26
Max score
131
Genius
92
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.
131 possible points
Point Density
The current candidate pool estimates a Genius target around 92 points. Longer words matter more than raw word count.
26 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
- UN- plus a K stem: The fastest route to points is the UN- family, because it produces three six-letter setup words and three long follow-ons, including the pangram. Examples: unkink, unknit, unknot, unkinking, unknitting, unknotting.
- Repeated N/T ladders: This hive rewards doubled consonants. Once you have KNIT or KNOT, test doubled N/T extensions before you sweep short fillers. Examples: knitting, knotting, unknitting, unknotting.
- -ING upgrades: Several middling stems become six- or seven-point answers by adding -ING, so don’t stop at the four-letter base. Examples: inking, nuking, toking, kinging, oinking, kinking.
- Short OI/OO cleanup: The vowel-heavy four-letter words are real, but they are best saved for late cleanup after you bank the long UN- and -ING words. Examples: oink, nook, kook, took, tiki.
- One pangram, no safety net: With only one pangram and 26 verified answers total, this board is tight enough that missing the all-letter path costs a big chunk of the score ceiling. Examples: unknotting.
Common Prefixes
un
UN- is the biggest multiplier on this board, turning short K stems into the highest-value verified answers.
Examples: unkink, unknit, unknot, unkinking, unknitting
ki
KI- splits into both short keepers and long doubled-letter extensions, so it is worth revisiting after you find KING or KINK.
Examples: king, kink, kinging, kinking, kiting
oi
OI- is a compact family with both cleanup and longer-point value once you spot the vowel ordering.
Examples: oink, oinking
Common Suffixes
ing
-ING is the main scoring engine here and shows up on several verified stems.
Examples: inking, nuking, toking, kinging, oinking
ting
-TING creates the jump from ordinary stems to eight- and ten-letter payoffs.
Examples: knotting, knitting, unknotting, unknitting
ink
-INK is a productive ending that also leads directly into the board’s doubled-letter branches.
Examples: oink, unkink, kink
Progressive Help
Pangram Hints
Start with the best prefix family
The pangram grows out of the same UN- family that also gives you three shorter verified words. Build from a common four-letter K stem instead of searching randomly.
Notice the doubled consonants
Your all-letter answer is 10 letters long and leans on repeated N and T rather than exotic vowel play.
Full reveal
If you want the complete pangram, reveal it here.
Reveal words: unknotting
Spoiler Control
Notable Words
- unknottingPangram
- unknitting10 pts
- unkinking9 pts
- knitting8 pts
- knotting8 pts
- ginkgo6 pts
- kinging7 pts
- oinking7 pts
- kinking7 pts
- inking6 pts
Why these matter
- unknotting
UNKNOTTING is the lone pangram and the board’s biggest single swing at 17 points, so it should anchor an early solve path.
- unknitting
UNKNITTING shares most of the pangram’s structure and is one of the two 10-letter scores that makes the tight board feel bigger than 26 answers.
- unkinking
UNKINKING is the other long UN- payoff and a strong reminder that repeated letters are where this hive hides value.
- knitting
KNITTING is a productive middle stem because it points both to doubled-letter logic and to the longer UNKNITTING extension.
- knotting
KNOTTING is the cleaner sibling to the pangram family and a useful checkpoint before you try to add the opening UN-.
- ginkgo
GINKGO is one of the few high-value answers that breaks away from the UN-/ -ING ladders, so it helps broaden your search.
- kinging
KINGING is a verified seven-letter answer that rewards revisiting an ordinary base word instead of abandoning it too early.
Hard Finds
Tricky Accepted Words
- ginkgo
GINKGO is easy to reject because of its unusual consonant cluster, but it is a verified six-point answer and one of the few non-UN long words.
- tiki
TIKI is short and vowel-forward, which makes it easy to skip on a board dominated by K/N/T ladders.
- kinging
KINGING looks like a solver-only stretch at first glance, but it is verified and extends a common base into real mid-tier points.
- unkink
UNKINK is a legitimate six-letter bridge into the longer UN- family, so it is worth checking once you find KINK.
- unknitting
UNKNITTING is one of the board’s two 10-letter scores and easy to miss if you stop at KNITTING.
- oinking
OINKING is a real seven-letter payoff that can hide behind the much easier OINK cleanup find.
Disputed Candidates
Plausible Rejections
- gink
GINK looks like a natural short partner to GINKGO, but today’s source list only accepts the longer form.
- gook
GOOK fits the letters and repeats K cleanly, but it is not in the verified answer set for this date.
- kinin
KININ is plausible if you know the biology term, but today’s accepted list does not include it.
- kino
KINO is a common solver candidate on K-heavy boards, yet it is not verified for this puzzle.
- kitting
KITTING follows the board’s doubled-letter logic, but the source list accepts KNITTING instead.
- knout
KNOUT uses all-allowed letters and looks legal, but it is outside the verified answer set today.
- koto
KOTO is another valid-looking short word that the live solver can generate without source support for this board.
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.