Here are the Letter Boxed December 17, 2025 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:
RVMAPLEGNCIU
The answers are:
GRUMPIERRELEVANCE
Got the OA after fiddling around with GRIMACE, VAMPIRE, MAGLEV, and UPRIVER.
Surprised my answer was the OA, being quite inefficient.
OA. 3rd in a row.
Hit the OA, but took way longer than it should have. Compiled 137 words before I finished. Seeing Grievance was the beginning of the end as it took me down the -ance pathway – VARIANCE was there as well, but despite having noted the -IER suffix, (CREAMIER, CLUMPIER, VEINIER, VAMPIER, LUMPIER, PREMIER, but not CRAMPIER?) still took some time to finish after spotting RELEVANCE. Got close with EPIGRAM. Finally saw GRUMPIER and was immediately less grumpy than I had been a minute before. Not that it was a useful addition, but I did like finding INVEIGLE as well, which is what this puzzle did to me for a couple of hours.
Your path sounds similar to mine. Spent way too long on grievance. Then some time with magpie. Has relevance early but had to come back to it a few times to connect it with grumpier
Same! That AL and NG were on my last nerve, finally saw GRUMPIER RELEVANCE
Damn! Had GRUMPIER, CLUMPIER, UPRIVER, and a bunch of others, decided I wasn’t going to waste a bunch of time on it and missed the obvious RELEVANCE!
Oa took me some time.
INVULGAR°—RECRAMPʷ
UNCLEAVE°—EPIGRAM
GLUMP°—PERCEIVANCE°
VAGINULE°—EMPIERCE
GLUMPIER^—RELEVANCE
GRIEVAUNCEʷ—EMPEARL°
GRIEVAUNCEʷ—EMPERIL°
GRUMPIER—RELEVANCE
VARGULINʷ—NAMEPIECEʷ
GLUMP°—PERCEIVERANCE°
VULGARIAN—NAMEPIECEʷ
GLUELUMPʷ—PERCEIVANCE°
GLUELUMPʷ—PERCEIVERANCE°
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ʷ Wiktionary, ^ Merriam-Webster, ° OED
vargulin : (organic chemistry) The luciferin found in the ostracod Cypridina hilgendorfii (also named Vargula hilgendorfii).
gluelump : (physics) A light glueball consisting of a single gluon.
Looks like today’s OA is the second singular solution in a row!
Agreed. I see no others today. ☕☕
Quick OA today the glass is Half empty! Vs the glass is half full
OA after kicking around VARIANCE.
OA after spending too much time on Grievance and Revamp.
PREVIGIL* LUMINANCE
* see Pope John XXIII use in his “Ecumenical Previgil”
In Christian literature, particularly in older liturgical texts or historical accounts of the Church, “previgil” refers to the preparatory period before a major feast or solemnity.
Also used in Psychiatry:
“.. previgil and postvigil control values .”
Good find, Simon, with PREVIGIL. 👍
Thx Mark! I see you had Glumpier. I was grumpy that it wasn’t accepted. 🙂
OA
Found grumpier quickly but relevance took some time.
I did find a use for GLUMP after all. 🙂
GLUMP* PREVARIANCE**
* MW
** legal term. “Legal disputes arise because the “prevariance” state of the property defines the baseline for what can actually be sold or shared without violating municipal codes.”
OA after fiddling with VULGARIAN