Your Spelling Bee Companion for Thursday, May 28, 2026
A field guide for the A G I J M N 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
47
Disputed Words
18
Pangrams
1
Score for Queen Bee
245
Genius estimate: 172 points
Verified Answers
47
Find every accepted word in today's source list
Pangrams
1
Use all seven letters
Disputed Words
18
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
Medium board with a heavy repeated-letter payoff
With A locked in the center, this board opens up through repeated-letter families much more than obscure one-offs. Start by probing the dense -ING lane and the short MA-/GA- clusters, because they unlock most of the serious scoring without forcing an early full-word reveal. The list is only 47 answers, but the 245-point ceiling means the longer extensions matter far more than a sweep of four-letter crumbs.
Verified answers
47
Max score
245
Genius
172
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.
245 possible points
Point Density
The current candidate pool estimates a Genius target around 172 points. Longer words matter more than raw word count.
47 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
- -ING extensions: This is the main scoring engine: once you spot a base, it often stretches into a 6-, 7-, or 9-letter answer. Examples: aiming, gaming, imagining, unjamming.
- MA- cluster: The MA lane keeps paying off, from four-letter starters to longer answers with repeated consonants. Examples: maim, magma, magnum, managing.
- GA- cluster: GA- produces both easy openers and several strong upgrades, so it is worth sweeping early. Examples: gain, gagging, ganging, gauging.
- UN- ladder: Only a few answers use UN-, but they chain neatly from short to long and include the pangram route. Examples: unjam, unman, unjamming, unmanning.
- Repeated doubles: Double letters are not decoration on this board; many of the best scores depend on trusting them. Examples: gamma, jamming, mamma, manning.
Common Prefixes
ga-
A productive opening lane that ranges from simple four-letter entries to high-value extensions.
Examples: gain, gamin, ganging, gauging
ma-
This prefix family does a lot of work across the board and often pairs with repeated letters.
Examples: magi, magma, maiming, mania
im-
A smaller lane, but it contains one short answer and two of the better long-word payoffs.
Examples: imam, imaging, imagining
un-
The UN family is compact but strategically important because it leads directly to the pangram branch.
Examples: unjam, unman, unjamming, unmanning
Common Suffixes
-ing
The board keeps rewarding solvers who try one more extension after finding a base form.
Examples: aging, gaming, jamming, imagining
-man
This ending appears in both a short useful word and a higher-value extension chain.
Examples: gunman, unman
-ima
A smaller but real ending family that helps confirm some of the board's trickier vowel patterns.
Examples: anima, minima
Progressive Help
Pangram Hints
Shape of the pangram
The lone pangram is a 9-letter word that starts with UN- and leans on a doubled consonant in the middle.
Build from a short base
Find a 5-letter UN- starter first, then extend it into a verb ending to reach the full-board answer.
Reveal words: unjam
Full pangram reveal
If you want the complete all-seven-letter answer, reveal it here.
Reveal words: unjamming
Spoiler Control
Notable Words
- unjammingPangram
- imagining9 pts
- managing8 pts
- gauging7 pts
- jagging7 pts
- magnum6 pts
- umami5 pts
- manna5 pts
- gaining7 pts
- ganging7 pts
Why these matter
- unjamming
The lone pangram is also one of the best scores on the page, so it changes the whole run once you find it.
- imagining
At nine letters, this is the other marquee scorer and a strong reward for extending a common base instead of settling early.
- managing
MANAGING shows how generous the board can be once you trust the MA lane and keep building.
- gauging
GAUGING is a high-value reminder that the board is friendlier to unusual vowel placement than it first appears.
- jagging
JAGGING gives the rare J immediate value and prevents that letter from becoming dead weight.
- magnum
MAGNUM is a sturdy mid-length score that helps bridge from the short MA entries into the better extensions.
- umami
UMAMI is one of the most distinctive five-letter finds, and spotting it early helps justify exploring the less common U branch.
Hard Finds
Tricky Accepted Words
- jagging
Easy to miss because the J looks isolated until you trust the doubled G and the common -ING ending together.
- umami
A familiar food word, but its unusual vowel pattern can hide even after you see the letters.
- minima
The repeated I/A rhythm makes it look less natural than it really is on this board.
- angina
A high-value six that is easier to overlook if you focus only on friendlier everyday vocabulary.
- imagining
This long scorer is built from a very ordinary stem, but it only appears if you keep extending aggressively.
Disputed Candidates
Plausible Rejections
- amiga
It fits the hive cleanly and looks like a plausible five-letter pickup, but today's verified source list does not include it.
- amain
The letter pattern is natural for this board, yet it is not part of the accepted answer set for May 28.
- gagman
The repeated-letter structure makes it feel believable beside GAGGING and GAMIN, but it is solver-only today.
- numina
It matches the board's vowel-heavy longer forms, but the verified source answers leave it out.
- manganin
This long technical-looking build is exactly the kind of solver candidate that feels possible but is not confirmed by the source.
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.