About HiveWords
HiveWords is a free spelling bee word game built around one idea: a word puzzle should be fast, fair, and genuinely free — no paywall, no hint wall, no clutter. This page explains how it's made and why you can trust it.
What we built
HiveWords started because the popular free spelling-bee clones share the same frustrations: they bury the game under ads, lock hints behind rewarded videos, and run dictionaries that accept bizarre obscure words while rejecting common ones. We set out to fix each of those.
- A fair dictionary. We began with the public-domain ENABLE word list (167,000+ words), then curated it — flagging rare and archaic entries and the tedious pile of simple -ed/-ing/-s inflections — so puzzles reward real vocabulary instead of suffix-guessing.
- Vetted puzzles. Every board is pre-screened to guarantee at least one pangram, a fair number of answers, and enough common words to be solvable. No random, unplayable boards.
- Real word data. Our word lists show pronunciations (IPA) and definitions for each word, drawn from established open sources, so they teach — not just list.
- Speed. The whole site is lightweight static pages with no heavy ad scripts, so it loads almost instantly on phones.
What we believe
- Free should mean free. No login, no subscription, no paywall — and we will never put hints or progress behind payment.
- Respect the player. No interstitial ad walls, no dark patterns, no nagging.
- Quality over quantity. A curated, fair word list beats a giant one full of words nobody knows.
Why you can trust HiveWords
We try to earn trust by being transparent about how the game works and where its data comes from:
- Our dictionary, definitions, and pronunciations come from well-known, openly-licensed sources, and we credit every one on our credits & licenses page.
- When a word list is curated rather than complete, we say so on the page and link to the full, unfiltered lists — so you always know what you're looking at.
- We use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics and don't sell data.
Independent, and not affiliated with the NYT
HiveWords is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The New York Times or its Spelling Bee. Our puzzles are generated from our own dictionary, our rank names are our own, and we don't republish anyone else's daily answers.
Feedback & contact
Found a word that should (or shouldn't) be accepted, or have an idea? We genuinely want to hear it — player feedback is how the dictionary keeps getting fairer. Email us at [email protected]; we read every message.