Man. Once I get to Genius, I just don’t want to continue without the Buddy. The only way I’d get to a natural QB is if I was without data after getting to Genius and kept at it because I had nothing better to do.
Yeah, I guess it (and the other signs of the Zodiac) are proper nouns.
I will go as far past Genius on my own as I can, but then I look at SBB, first just the grids, then at the hints to see if there’s one that provides the first four letters and says there are more like it. After that, if it’s getting late and I’m really drawing a blank, I’ll look at the reader hints, but for me that verges on “cheating,” and I avoid it if I can.
Yeah, Reader Hints are pretty much giveaways. I’ve used them very occasionally, when my curiosity gets the best of me and I know I’m done for the day.
I don’t know which is more annoying: using a reader hint to uncover a word I know perfectly well and should have gotten on my own, or a weird, obscure word Sam has decided isn’t weird or obscure.
Yeah, rarely, but sometimes, I’ve broken down and used a reader hint, and I still have zero idea.
Same. When that happens, I search on the clue and usually find it.
I rarely get to QB without any help. I only discovered there was such a thing as QB the first time I happened to do it, a few years ago. Since then, it’s only happened a handful of times. I’m impressed by anyone who can do it regularly.
In Spelling Bee parlance, “Hints” are the 2-letter list of words and grid. “Clues” are the reader-supplied clues that you click on that give away the answer. And then there’s that weird hybrid of “Your Customized Hints” which are mostly useless but will have a hint that pretty much gives away a word near the end.
I get a natural QB about 10% of the time. I only try when I get on a bit of a roll after Genius and I have time in the day
I used to only get naturals about 3 or 4 times a month, but in the past three months, that number has significantly increased. And even more recently: 12 natural QBs in the last 26 days.
My streak continues by the way: now 5 in a row. I was stuck on the last word (BIRADIAL) for a long time.
I did manage a QB today. My last word is one that typically gives me trouble ALIBI
Today (Thursday, May 14, 2026), no bimbos were allowed.
One of the first words I tried!
I checked: that word has never been allowed. That was a surprise to me.
Can’t really take a game like this seriously when it’s not “find words” but it’s “find words acceptable to some rando who works at the NYT”.
I guess this isn’t for you then but we love it despite that quirk. There has to be some kind of cutoff and people will complain regardless of where that is. That’s not to say that we “take it seriously” because it’s just a fucking web game.
Then what dictionary would you recommend he use? Keep on mind that whatever dictionary you pick, no one can get to Queen Bee until they’ve guessed every single allowable word in that dictionary. Merriam Webster? OED? The Scrabble dictionary contains over 100,000 words (although many are under 4 letters long).
I’m pretty sure I know plenty of words you don’t, just as you know plenty more words I don’t. Same with every other person who plays. You’re pretty much asking for him to use the dictionary of “all the words JohnT knows”.
And some words are disallowed for being offensive while others are proper nouns.
Didn’t PINMAN used to be allowed?
No, but it’s been disallowed 12 times!
Among capitalized words that pop into my head, this letter combination often makes me want to type ANIMANIAC. In fact sometimes I do. (don’t click this spoiler until you’re done with the puzzle, it very much spoils some legit words)