Contexto #1517 Hints & Answer Today, November 13, 2026

Contexto #1517 is the game for Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, and the secret word is a noun with 4 letters. The list that follows holds three hints, the 30 words the game ranks nearest the answer sorted into six groups, a rank-band table and two guesses that land far off. The word itself sits at the very end. Today’s list is crowded with animals, so the scoring notes on our Contexto page help when two animal guesses score alike.

Hints, from gentle to strong

1. Four letters, one syllable.
2. Nearly every close word is a living creature, and many of them fly.
3. It glides on wide wings and watches the ground from above.

The 30 closest words, grouped by reason

Ranks 2 to 31 come from the game’s own list for game #1517, and rank 1 is the secret word. The game gives no reasons for its order, so the group names are ours.

Birds that hunt. eagle (2), falcon (3), owl (6), raptor (7), vulture (27). Five words, and the first two ranks after the answer are both here.

Other birds. duck (9), dove (11), heron (16), crow (18), raven (19), sparrow (28), phoenix (30). Seven words, with a mythical bird at the tail end.

Wings and flight. wing (4), bird (5), fly (8), nest (14). Four words for the gear, the act and the home.

Land animals. lion (10), buffalo (13), coyote (15), fox (17), tiger (21), bull (22), buck (24), deer (25), panther (26). Nine words, the largest group, mostly hunters or hoofed animals.

The chase. hunt (20), prey (23), game (29). Three words about pursuit.

Names. warrior (12), tony (31). Two words that read as team names or first names.

What each rank band looks like

Rank band	Words in the band	Birds that hunt	Other birds	Wings and flight	Land animals	The chase	Names
2 to 10	9	4	1	3	1	0	0
11 to 31	21	1	6	1	8	3	2

Sorted by rank, the front of the list is flying words and the back is land animals. After rank 31 the list keeps mixing: wolf (33), raider (36), predator (41), helicopter (44), shark (45), hill (47). Even a shark is inside the top 50.

Two guesses that miss

Machines are the first trap. Helicopter ranks 44, but aircraft ranks 144, jet ranks 145 and plane ranks 164, so the idea of flying alone does not carry far. The second trap is to list the body parts: feather ranks 57, yet talon ranks 194, beak ranks 321 and eye ranks 440. The game wants the animal, not its tools. Words such as dog and chicken are outside the 500 words the game lists. All ranks come from the game’s own list for game #1517.

Plan the rest of the day on the November 2026 calendar or the weekly printable. Yesterday’s Contexto is on the game #1516 page.

Today’s Contexto answer (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

The secret word for Contexto #1517 is Hawk.

Yesterday’s word, for game #1516, was Brook. Game #1518 starts at 11 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).