Top 10 Hardest and Easiest Spelling Bee Words, June 24-30

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/upshot/spelling-bee-words.html

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Note: If you plan to play Spelling Bee’s Past Puzzles from the last week, this list may contain spoilers.

This week, plena — a Puerto Rican style of street-corner music that often narrates stories about community life — was the word least found by players of Spelling Bee, while ward was the word most found. Six of this week’s hardest words all came from Thursday’s puzzle.

This data is based on visitors to Spelling Bee Buddy, a tool that shows hints and statistics for each word as you play Spelling Bee, and covers Saturday, June 24, to Friday, June 30. (Users of the tool are among the puzzle’s most dedicated solvers, so these percentages are probably higher than they would be for all Spelling Bee players.)

Here are the meanings of the least-found words that were used in (mostly) recent Times articles.

1. plena — a Puerto Rican style of street-corner music that often narrates stories about community life:

2. villanelle — a 19-line poem with repeating rhymes, such as “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”:

3. lollop — to move in a bounding or ungainly way:

4. palapa — a thatched-roof shelter with open sides, common in Mexico:

5. appellee — the party in a case who is defending against an appeal:

6. dooryard — a yard near the door of a house:

7. vanillin — the main part of vanilla extract:

8. napoleon — a flaky pastry filled with cream or custard:

9. paean — a song or work filled with praise:

10. leonine — resembling a lion:

And the list of the week’s easiest words:

Each morning, you can see which of the day’s Spelling Bee words are stumping the hivemind (without spoilers!), and track your remaining words, by visiting Spelling Bee Buddy.