Here are the Letter Boxed May 15, 2024 Answers from New York Times Games. Our solutions and answers are 100% valid and accurate. We suggest trying to solve the game on your own before using the help of our website.
Sides of this Letter Box are:
XGRYIEPHOTSM
The answers are:
OMIGOSHHYPERTEXT
OMIGOSH is not a word. It’s certainly not a PSW, that’s for sure. This may be my second-least-favourite puzzle of all time.
I spent an hour experimenting with combinations of letters, and ultimately I did hit on OXYSOMES* – SPRIGHT*, but that is an unsatisfying solution, to say the least. For the record, oxysomes are structures on the insides of mitochondrial membranes, and “spright” is an obsolete spelling of “sprite.”
Agreed on the quality of the puzzle. I finally got Mightyship Proxime, neither of which are words I have ever read or used.
Agreed! After working on this one for far too long, I came up with my own word… BITEME
Agreed! Total BS!
I agree wholeheartedly 🙏
HYPERTEXT is the first word I saw. I made up words from the leftovers: GORMISH, MO(R)GISH. I would never come up with OMIGOD! OMG! It took me 2 hours to give up with the following: PROXIMITY, EXPERTISE, EXPIRY, GEOMETRY, GEOTHERM, TOGETHER.
OMIGOSH*
I had HYPER- but missed completing it to a word. Spent a long time with PROXIMITY and EXPERTISE as well, but nada
I have to say, this may be my last puzzle. If this is what it’s coming to, I’m no longer interested.
Cheers to a rainy Wednesday in NC.
i’m happy to validate your displeasure. About two months ago, I set a time limit of two minutes to look at this puzzle before viewing the answer. In that time, I’ve still “won” about 5 times, but mostly I’ve cleared my head of this nonsense. I’ve seen more stupid words than I would want to deal with. This is by far and away the stupidest word, though.
Omigosh is acceptable??!!
How about Hypertext & Tigermoths (a type of butterfly)
Nice solve!
TIGER MOTHS are two separate words. I excitedly typed RIGORMORTIS, but, alas, two words.
Glad I gave up when I did. Got back to it so late I did not want to labor over it and OH MY GOSH I’m glad I went straight to the answer.
I’m getting there, with today’s OA! Utter nonsense!
Nope!
absolute trash.
MIGHTYSHIP—PROREX
🚢🤴
Strangely, neither word is a PSW, and neither is in Merriam-Webster! I eventually found them both in Oxford English Dictionary. ☕
What is a PSW? I’ve seen this in many comments here.
Playable Scrabble Word
Omigosh what is up with all the grumbling today? I think the OA is a lot of fun, nice TI! And really not particularly obscure. One of my tests is, does Siri suggest a word when you start to type it. “Omig” instantly brings up Omigosh. So there.
I’ll be interested to see if there are any alternative answers today. It’s a tough array!
I can appreciate your viewpoint, Bernie. My frustration comes from where I don’t know where it “stops and starts” if that makes sense. Are we looking for legitimate words or should I start looking for slang as well? What slang will be accepted? I find myself looking more forward to this thread with kind conversations and what answers are out there rather than the puzzle itself. Todays puzzle didn’t help my frustration.
I agree ROG – and with most of the comments from DW on.
I got the OA. I saw HYPERTEXT and tried to match to the T and didn’t try the G. After messing around with PROXIMITY and EXTREMITY and EXTERIOR; plus GYPSYMOTH and a few others LB wouldn’t take, I typed HYPERTEXT in again and then noticed the leftover letters could make OMIGOSH. And I said to meself “Really? LB will take this?” and sure enough it did.
And you are right – the real frustration is not knowing when a word (or expression) is in or out.
I did have this 5-worder:
EXTORT THIS SPY YOGI IMP!
didn’t try the “H”, not the “G”
And it is more fun seeing what everyone else comes up with!
😎
Hep Proximity Yogis is my best.
Some creepy dudes left over from the 1960s?
Wow! I usually come on here to find dozens of solutions (nearly always better than mine!). I did come up with lots of long inefficient words:
THERMOMETERS
RESPIROMETERS
GEOTHERM
ISOGEOTHERM
GEOTHERMOMETERS
EXTREMITY
PERIMETRY
OXIMETRY
ISOMETRY
No way to connect anything. I was a little frustrated that OXISOMES and EXOSPERM were not accepted but XEROX was.
👍😎
the OA stinks. cant believe its the OA when i got it
👍😎
OA. I wouldn’t have expected omigosh, but hypertext looked promising, so had to check it out.
OA. ‘Omigosh’ shows up in the NYT crossword every once in a while (usually as an answer or clue paired with ‘egad’) and inevitably rouses fury in the crossword forums.
It’s also in the OED.
It’s not in Merriam-Webster, which is my go-to, being more user friendly for me. The MW thesaurus and audio pronunciations are excellent.
I rarely use the OED, but do so only when MW fails me.
https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=omigosh
But it’s defined as an interjection there; not as a noun, verb, adjective, etc..
By the way, Letter Boxed also accepts some abbreviations, so I’m at the point now where “all bets are off”. There are exceptions, reverse exceptions, and exceptions to exceptions. 🙂
The one thing I have yet to see is an LB-word that is not in OED.
☕☕
Sam Ezersky has clearly stated that LB uses the OED. Here’s a quote from X: “I don’t touch the Letter Boxed dictionary at all, actually! It’s the Oxford Dictionary of English (should be the most up-to-date version); any word it contains is fair game for the 📦 unless it has been filtered out as hurtful/offensive.”
Good to know. Thanks Julia!
Me too JuliaC, it’s good to know that he said that.
But, it seems that I have made many words that are in the OED that are not offensive/hurtful, but perhaps are archaic, and LB rejects them. I can’t think of a specific example right now, but if I do I’ll post it.
mcbee again …
I guess the best example I found was from this past February 28 (2024).
The OA was:
BATHYSPHERE EVICT (16/2).
I tried
BRAVEST TYPHIC
to try to get a 13/2 but LB wouldn’t take TYPHIC, which is in the online OED and M-W. Typhic isn’t an offensive word, is it?
But – it’s just a game, and the computer is the umpire that decides if it’s a ball or strike.
😎
Found another one with the May 16, 2024 puzzle:
DORLACH
LB rejects this word but it is in the OED, which says that it is a Scottish-English word but interestingly they provide audio pronunciation of it in British and US English as well as Scottish. The British pronunciation, to me, is not offensive but does sound like “toilet” – maybe it’s just my ears.
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/dorlach_n?tl=true
I’m sure there has been at least one or two, but I’m not remembering which ones now.
It’s only in the OED as a replacement for omigod. Doesn’t even rate a definition
Super frustrated and gave up. So many directions and near misses:
Primetimes, Extremis, Extremity, Shrimpy/ers, (Tigershrimp not accepted), Sexters, Expiry, Proxy/Proximity, Perimeters, Prosperity, Prototypes, Pretext, Isometry, Promoters, Premixes, Geometry/Geometers, Heroships
🤬
Near misses:
Extorters /Exporters – Shrimpy (no G)
Mothership – Proxy/Proximity (no G)
Premixes- *Sightrhymes (no O)
Not happy
Tigershrimp
Sightrhymes
and several -meter and -ship words not accepted.
I peaced out when it didn’t accept OXYTOSIS. Not my favorite LB.
Did find PROXYSHIP and thought i had it licked but even looking through the lists here I cannot find the match. Omigosh will have to try again tomorrow
✅😎
Finally after exasperating rabbit hole, said to myself OMG, and suddenly tried OMIGOSH after lots of other wordier combinations with HYPERTEXT. Was surprised it got accepted, then not surprised that was the OA.
😇😎
same path to OA as SLC.
Is not TIGERMOM one word also……?
Mothership protext
EXTREMES SPIGOT THY i gave up on two words… OMIGOSH?!
I don’t think Radioactive Flower has posted yet … I like looking at RF’s little teasers – usually someone else has already solved them by the time I see them, but it’s still fun to read them.
😎
Agree
Yuck!
Parameters for “accepted” vary by puzzle author (and their chosen source). Got curious and tried Ouija for Wordle: accepted. Crazy.
RIGHT TROMPS SEXY
Finally gave up after staring at this one all day, and glad I did so. Never would have come up with OMIGOSH in a million years. Dont get how that is accepted but SIXTYSIX and SIXTYSIXTH aren’t. Booooooo.
I appreciate everyone who was willing to take this puzzle in stride, but this one is top-tier trash for me. Spent WAY too long finding all kinds of obscure words — PYROMETER, GEOTHERMOMETRY, etc. etc., only to finally give up and find the OA — and one of the only solutions — is a 14-year-old’s texting slang.
Like others, I also don’t know where to draw the line for how much time I spend on these puzzles — there have been days where I’ve stared at LB for hours, only to have that sweet a-ha moment where I’ve found a workable solution and felt like a genius. Then there are days like this that feel like I never even had a chance. If Ezersky wants to employ these ultra-niche solutions he could at least have the decency to make sure there are more viable alternative solutions.
GEM-MOTHERSHIP -PYX
Or
GEM-MOTHERSHIPS-SEXY
BACHELOR-RUINED
I will again mention Verklempt, Jaguarundi, and the horrible Vuvuzela! Anyone who stuck around after those shouldn’t whine about Omigosh…
Far be it for me to be among the cooler heads prevailing . . . but when I struggle with the LB, or find that the only solution to be pretty darn obscure, I remind myself that the point of the game is to come in at ‘par’ or worse. The puzzle (and by extension, the puzzle maker) is really under no obligation to accommodate our obsession with twofers. It’s really cool that they so often do, though. I’ve had a lot of fun with this over the years, despite the VUVUZELA incident. And, I enjoy interacting with everyone here, too.
I don’t feel bad for not having gotten this