Here are the Letter Boxed May 27, 2026 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:
ABGFULIMZTRE
The answers are:
ZAFTIGGRUMBLE
Ooof, what a nightmare for a birthday puzzle, and I see I am not alone! With MEGA, IZE, ATE, ITE, TER, FUL, ABLE not possible, I was just *stuck* for the better part of an hour. I kept getting hung up on TAMBURITZA (a mandolin) – no go, whatever I tried.
Saw GRUMBLE, but didn’t make the connection till I thought about ZAFTIG 10 minutes later, then rejoiced. Should have guessed since it’s…that’s right, Yiddish. (and very American, possibly regional?) Also, I’m betting singular.
Kanishk (if you can) and RF, looking forward to seeing you here soon with your solutions. Right, off to treat myself w/ a birthday croissant and coffee.
Good luck, all, and happy Hump Day!
Happy, happy birthday Miss Irim. Wishing you well on your birthday and celebrate more birthdays to come.
I saw GRUMBLE, and I froze making a word from the leftovers. Had no clue it would spell out ZAFTIG with no repeat letters. First time encountering it. I had a bunch of first times already of words I never heard before. That’s only in LB experience. Gave up relatively early because there’s not much to be done with the ‘Z’. Is ZAFTIG Yiddish?
Congrats Miss Irim! Checking on Kanishk-boy’s answer later. 🤗
Thank you, my lovely. *hugs*
Still just us this late?? Did you guess ZAFTIG? That’s amazing.It is indeed Yiddish, and it means plump. Comes from the German ‘saftig’ meaning ‘juicy’. Became ‘zaftig’ in Yiddish.
Hope others come soon. Have a lovely evening, hon!
Definitely Yiddish, and the general usage is a little more specific than just “plump”. It is generally used to refer to, let’s say, “top heavy” women. This one was a pretty quick OA for me. 125/147, 26/27, 25, 36
No, I didn’t guess ZAFTIG. In fact I failed today Miss Irim. Huhuhu
I had forgotten that – thank you.
Happy Birthday, Irim! 🎉
Thank you!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IRIM!! 🎉 🥳
Sending you LOADS of virtual confetti, cake and high-fives. Hope your day is filled with laughter and all the happiness you deserve. *hugs*
I share my condolences, RF, even I failed too. This must be a new record for Litter Boxed – two Yiddish OAs in a row! Gave up today after just ten minutes because I was sure there would be some totally obscure word hidden somewhere (I was practically unable to form words longer than five letters with the Z). Thought ZEBRA would lead me somewhere.
The thing is, I totally could have gotten today’s OA, even though i haven’t seen that ridiculous word ever before in my life. I saw GRUMBLE immediately, and usually I try to make a word from the leftovers (since each letter is repeated only once, I would have gotten an instant solve, just by sheer dumb luck – and this has worked before, with GRAWLIX). But for some stupid reason discarded it.
Wishing a happy birthday again to one of the best unexpected friendships I’ve made though a word game. Hope you have an amazing day, Irim! RF, we’ll get back on track tomorrow, I’m calling it.
OA
The ZAFTIG fortune teller emerged from the BRUMAL haze beneath the crumbling ZARZUELA theater, her AMBIGRAM tattoos glowing like EMBERS across her arms. Travelers from every RURAL village fell silent as she raised the ancient TAMBURITZA and whispered AUGURIAL warnings of a coming BLAZAR that would split the sky “from UMBRA to AURAE.” Even the grizzled BURGLAR beside the BRAMBLE altar tightened his LIFEBELT and listened, while somewhere beyond the AIRFRAME graveyard, the first low MURMUR of the storm began to RUMBLE.
Suspected singular solution:
ZAFTIG—GRUMBLE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Half-solution
ZEUGMATAʷ—AFEBRILE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ʷ Wiktionary
I thought of Tambur but not the Itza. Kudos!
Thanks, Simon. It’s fun building LB short stories, especially on slow days. ☕
OA after a few zzzzz’s.
Postprandial Regret.
Same OA
EMBEZEL* LARGEFRUIT**
* var spelling of embezzle.
“A New Dictionary of English and Dutch”
1749. Also mentioned in early OED as obs.
** single word term used in botany (macrocarpa) as in”largefruit yucca” — “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cacti and Succulents.”
Good research!
Thx Mark! My Dad had a copy of the Century Dictionary 1914 ed, which was nearly about a foot thick, 8000 pages, and weighed 25 lbs. I used to pore through that for hours as a child, sitting on the floor. I wish I had it now. The ones online are broken up into separate volumes and hard to navigate. Not to mention a strain on the eyes. 🙂
OA grumble early then ritz fritz glitz maze amaze braze gaze glaze zebra raze faze tzar farm. Life air eligible figural and more before zaftig finally occurred
Don’t forget ZEBU. 🙂
😊👍
Forgot mazel , another Z non usable today
Found Grumble easily and after that nothing paired. Perhaps that is because I am not familiar with the word Zaftig and I know for certs that it is not an English language word.
Other than English, I have some competency with the French language.
On days like this, I feel like saying Adieu to Letter Boxed.
GIVE’ER!!
Hi Bill. Thanks for the support!
CG
I’m seeing a completely different puzzle from the solutions mentioned here, what I’m seeing solves to BACKLIGHT – TERN
Got the OA very quickly, and assumed it would be obscure enough that it simply wouldn’t occur to a lot of people. I really don’t see the reasoning behind constructing puzzles with singular solutions built around words that very few people are familiar with. And Happy Birthday Irim!