Here are the Letter Boxed May 31, 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:
BVRHKIANECLD
The answers are:
HARDBACKKELVIN
DRINKABLE ECHEVERIA
HARDBACK-KELVIN, so OA. I tried DRINKABLE almost first thing, Adrian, now kicking myself for not seeing ECHEVERIA! Was gutted that BECHALKED wasn’t an option, because it’s a great word. Ditto BACKHAND(ER). Tried BLACKER, BLACKED, DRIVABLE, DERIVABLE, then lit on HARDBACK, and the rest, they say, is history.
Kanishk and RF, looking forward to your Sunday solutions.
Good luck, everyone, and happy Sunday!
OA here too, after much the same process, and almost calling it quits, but in reverse order… Tried KELVIN first, thinking it might be a proper noun, then tried HARDBACK, not sure if it would be accepted. Was surprised how tough it was to pull an answer out of an array that seemed loaded with possibilities.
Failed.
Well done, Miss Irim. 👍
Checking on Kanishk-boy later. 😊
Agree on Samuel. So many good words found but to no avail (at least for me). I can’t believe I can’t solve it today that’s why it took me so long to give up.
This might be the most frustrating array I’ve ever tried solving. Like many others, (RF and Samuel) I found LOADS of decent words which I was unable to pair, some of them being INHALED, DRIVABLE, BLACKBIRD, DAREDEVIL, HACKABLE, CHECKABLE, INVADER, INVINCIBLE, CHAKRA, BELIEVED and ERADICABLE. I still failed in the end.
What really angers me about today’s grid is the fact that CHIVIED, a word valid across most dictionaries which includes the OED, wasn’t accepted! In fact it is an archaic verb which means the past tense of “to tell someone repeatedly to do something”. At the same time there are some ridiculous arrays where words like FLUGELHORN are not just accepted, but devised in such a way that the player finds it impossible to solve unless they are familiar with that particular word.
My protest-solve, (as I like to call it), is CHIVIED – DRINKABLE. The HI juxtaposition today made some words like ARCHIVED and ACHIEVED unplayable, which was another thing to be annoyed about, because otherwise I would have ARCHIVED – DRINKABLE. Kudos to Adrian for coming up with ECHEVERIA, wouldn’t have gotten it in a million years.
Well done, Irim, and condolences RF, we’ll get back on track tomorrow, I’m claiming it. 😉
HAHAHAHAHA, wait till you see today’s. You’ll probably get it faster and I am SO THERE with you. It’s not archaic, it’s just a different spelling, as the current form is chivvied. It really infuriates me that he doesn’t allow some common words, but allows for some bizarre ones.
Love your protest solve – that would have been mine too. Good luck today!
Wait, how did you do CHIVIED with H and I on the same side? Same problem as ACHIEVED and ARCHIVED?
OA. After hackable and believable
Agreed! Things like BACKHANDER-REVILE weren’t possible, but I was so sure there were a lot of options here. DRINKABLE-ECHIVERIA & HARDBAKE-EVINCIBLE listed here are the only two other confirmed ones I’ve seen. Just checked Alice Liang, and most of the possibilities she lists seem unlikely.
Fail here too, despite having HARDBACK. Rough weekend. 136/151, 28/31, 0, 36
HARDBAKE-EVINCIBLE
*BECHALKED-DREVIN”
*OED
DRINKABLE-ECHEVERIA
HARDBACK-KELVIN
HARDBAKE EVINCIBLE
Same here!
*BLINKARD-DIVECH^
*OED, ^Wiktionary
Knickered Deliverable
No H Sir Wayne
DRINKABLE ECHEVERIA
and CHARIVARIED* DRINKABLE
Charivari and Chakra were my first words. Followed by Nickleback, a football term. Finally hit on Drinkable.
*Collins, Wiki
Morning Mark,
After reading through the comments from the past few days do you think you could explain, to those of us without a tech background, what you’re seeing that I don’t (in terms of bots, etc)?
OA. took about an hour
OA, after messing with CHEVALIER, CHALKED, CAVERN, BELIEVABLE, and INVARIABLE!
Chaved(OED) drinkable. Bedeviler(MW)rain check