Today’s NYT Spelling Bee Puzzle (May 2, 2025)

If today’s NYT Spelling Bee puzzle left you stumped, you’re not alone. I tackled it this afternoon with our app, Spelling Better, and honestly, it’s one of those puzzles that makes you second-guess everything you thought you knew about vowels.

Today’s center letter is L, surrounded by V, O, R, G, I, Y—a pretty unconventional mix. I used our Pangram Practice tool inside Spelling Better to test combinations, and sure enough, the pangram finally clicked: VIRGOLOGY. Not your everyday word, but a satisfying one once it reveals itself.

• Center Letter: L

• Other Letters: V, O, R, G, I, Y

• Letters in the Hive: L, V, O, R, G, I, Y

How I Solved Today’s Puzzle with Spelling Better

Before I jump into the NYT Spelling bee answers list, a quick note on how Spelling Better helps crack these puzzles daily:

• I input the 7 hive letters into our custom pangram tool

• Instantly got a list of valid words that include the center letter

• Sorted them by length to prioritize high-scoring guesses

• Practiced forming words without auto-complete to simulate the real puzzle

• Reviewed missed words using the “reveal and learn” feature

This has become part of my daily ritual, solving the NYT puzzle, then cross-checking and learning via the app. If you’re trying to improve your score, vocabulary, or just love wordplay, give it a shot.

Pangram of the Day

The pangram hidden in today’s hive is: VIRGOLOGY
It’s one of those scientific-sounding words that feels obscure at first, but makes perfect sense once it lands.

Word Count Breakdown

• Total Words: 33

• Pangrams: 1

• 4-Letter Words: glow, roll, girl…

• 5-Letter Words: glory, royal, vigor…

• 6+ Letter Words: gorily, logily, glorify…

You can find the complete word list below, but if you’re looking to train daily for these kinds of challenges, the Spelling Better app can help you simulate NYT puzzles, generate your own hives, and master pangrams under pressure.

NYT Spelling bee Answers Full Word List May 2, 2025

4-Letter Words: glow, girl, roll, lory, roil, viol, gill, oily, lily, giro, logo, vill

5-Letter Words: glory, royal, vigor, girly, volgy, grill, girly, glory

6-Letter Words: gorily, logily, overly, oilyly, vigour

7+ Letter Words: glorify, virgory, virlogy

(Note: unofficial spellings may differ from the NYT accepted list)

Distribution of Word Lengths in NYT Spelling Bee Answers Pangrams – May 2, 2025

Today’s puzzle leaned heavily on shorter words, with 4-letter entries dominating the hive. Out of 46 total valid words, nearly 44% were 4-letter words. This kind of distribution often makes it trickier to score high since short words yield fewer points.

Interestingly, there was a sharp drop after 5-letter words. Only a small fraction of the answers were 7 or 8 letters long, which made spotting longer words—and especially the pangram—a bit more challenging. This kind of layout tests breadth more than depth and is perfect practice material for tools like Spelling Better, which helps break down letter combinations to reveal hidden gems.

Visual Insight:
If you felt like you were stuck circling short words today, you weren’t imagining it. This chart confirms that the puzzle was structurally weighted toward the quick wins.

Points Available by Word Length – May 2, 2025

While 4-letter words were the most common, they didn’t offer the most value. This chart shows that 5- and 6-letter words together contributed over 50% of the total score, despite being less frequent. That’s where serious players made the jump toward Genius level.

The point-to-word ratio was highest in the mid-range word lengths. Just a few well-placed guesses, like vigour or logic, would have boosted your score significantly. Surprisingly, 8-letter words, though rare, also held their own with 31 points, showing that even a single long word can tip the balance in your daily ranking.

Using Spelling Better’s scoring simulation, you can train to spot not just any word in the NYT Spelling Bee answers of Pangrams, but the high-value words that matter when chasing a high score.