NYT Letter Boxed Answers October 2026: The Times' Solution for Every Day

Letter Boxed published 31 puzzles in October 2026, from Thu., Oct. 1 to Sat., Oct. 31, and the Times’ own two-word solution for every one is listed below from The New York Times (NYT) puzzle data. Sam Ezersky edited all of them. The first solution was Parkour, Refinanced and the last was Bauxite, Eponym. This page gives away every answer, so stop here if you still have a puzzle to solve.

What were all the Letter Boxed solutions in October 2026?

Date	Sides	Par	The Times’ solution
Thu., Oct. 1	R/I/C, P/E/O, F/A/K, D/U/N	4	Parkour, Refinanced
Fri., Oct. 2	B/T/K, L/N/R, A/E/O, J/I/X	6	Jailbroken, Next
Sat., Oct. 3	L/H/Y, M/I/E, R/U/T, W/A/P	4	Wherewithal, Lumpy
Sun., Oct. 4	C/L/K, O/U/A, Z/E/Q, N/S/Y	6	Calzones, Squeaky
Mon., Oct. 5	D/O/T, R/G/U, I/L/N, F/E/C	4	Fridge, Elocution
Tue., Oct. 6	F/T/M, R/G/X, A/I/O, V/L/S	5	Variform, Mixologist
Wed., Oct. 7	E/I/O, H/N/R, C/W/L, M/A/B	4	Mechanical, Lowbrow
Thu., Oct. 8	Z/R/Q, I/G/Y, A/N/K, T/U/L	6	Tzatziki, Inquiringly
Fri., Oct. 9	W/D/N, Y/G/T, K/U/I, S/R/A	4	Skywriting, Gaudy
Sat., Oct. 10	T/L/N, X/I/A, E/D/P, C/K/R	5	Explicit, Tankard
Sun., Oct. 11	L/V/T, O/M/I, W/A/R, P/E/F	5	Vamp, Powerlifter
Mon., Oct. 12	E/J/A, Y/B/S, H/I/P, R/C/O	5	Josh, Hyperbaric
Tue., Oct. 13	G/S/E, I/Z/O, U/L/N, Q/A/B	6	Quisling, Gazebo
Wed., Oct. 14	R/L/W, U/N/A, K/E/P, T/C/O	4	Workup, Placenta
Thu., Oct. 15	F/S/T, I/E/U, O/H/K, V/C/R	4	Vociferous, Sketch
Fri., Oct. 16	F/A/H, U/X/I, O/N/G, M/D/R	6	Foxhound, Diagram
Sat., Oct. 17	B/Y/T, A/L/R, G/N/M, P/O/E	4	Probate, Entomology
Sun., Oct. 18	N/K/L, I/O/E, W/R/A, T/C/H	4	Horntail, Lacework
Mon., Oct. 19	M/E/I, N/O/T, G/X/A, J/S/R	6	Jingoism, Matrixes
Tue., Oct. 20	I/H/R, V/T/U, A/C/O, N/Y/P	5	Vicuna, Atrophy
Wed., Oct. 21	S/C/Q, D/T/O, E/R/I, U/V/N	5	Turquoise, Evinced
Thu., Oct. 22	G/K/O, L/P/S, F/I/R, A/H/Y	4	Flagship, Porky
Fri., Oct. 23	A/R/C, I/G/T, Z/E/H, B/U/N	6	Chateau, Urbanizing
Sat., Oct. 24	E/P/L, M/R/H, S/N/T, U/K/I	4	Methinks, Slurp
Sun., Oct. 25	D/A/K, N/T/R, L/E/B, I/W/C	4	Crabwalked, Detain
Mon., Oct. 26	C/T/J, O/N/U, H/L/A, G/I/Q	6	Quilting, Gochujang
Tue., Oct. 27	C/D/I, U/F/T, R/M/A, B/E/O	5	Bacterium, Mortified
Wed., Oct. 28	I/L/A, P/C/S, E/Y/O, R/U/Z	5	Zap, Preciously
Thu., Oct. 29	Y/H/K, A/D/E, T/I/O, W/R/M	5	Homework, Katydid
Fri., Oct. 30	L/R/V, I/F/S, G/M/T, N/O/A	4	Flamingos, Striving
Sat., Oct. 31	U/I/N, A/T/X, E/O/M, B/P/Y	5	Bauxite, Eponym

Source: The New York Times, Letter Boxed, puzzle data for Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2026. Sides are listed as the puzzle data gives them, one group of three letters per side. Letter Boxed has no public puzzle numbers, so days are identified by date. The solution is the one the Times calls “Our solution”; other valid answers exist. Our daily pages cover the last five days: Oct. 27, Oct. 28, Oct. 29, Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. For earlier and later puzzles, see the Letter Boxed hub.

How did we check the solutions?

We ran every solution through a script against its box. Each word uses only letters from that day’s four sides, no two consecutive letters in a word come from the same side, each word starts with the last letter of the one before, and together the two words use all 12 letters. All 31 solutions passed every test.

How long were the solutions?

All 31 solutions had exactly two words. They averaged 15.5 letters in total and 7.7 letters per word, and no word appeared twice in the month.

Measure	Result
Shortest solution	13 letters, on five days: Oct. 20 (Vicuna, Atrophy), Oct. 22 (Flagship, Porky), Oct. 24 (Methinks, Slurp), Oct. 28 (Zap, Preciously) and Oct. 31 (Bauxite, Eponym)
Longest solution	19 letters, Oct. 8 (Tzatziki, Inquiringly)
Average solution	15.5 letters
Longest words	Wherewithal (Oct. 3), Inquiringly (Oct. 8) and Powerlifter (Oct. 11), 11 letters each
Shortest word	Zap (Oct. 28), 3 letters
Words of 10 letters or more	14 of the 62 words

What was par each day?

Par is the word count the puzzle data lists for each day. The Times’ solution used two words every day, so it came in 2 to 4 words under par.

Par	Days	Dates
4	13	Oct. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, 24, 25, 30
5	10	Oct. 6, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 31
6	8	Oct. 2, 4, 8, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26

The average par was 4.8. Solution length barely moved with par: the average was 15.5 letters on par-4 days, 15.0 on par-5 days and 15.9 on par-6 days.

How many words did the game accept?

The puzzle data also gives the number of words the game accepts on each day. It ranged from 546 on Thu., Oct. 8 to 2,399 on Mon., Oct. 19, with an average of 1,332. Seven days had fewer than 1,000 accepted words, and only Oct. 19 passed 2,000.

Par and word count moved in opposite directions. Par-4 days averaged 1,490 accepted words, par-5 days 1,329 and par-6 days 1,081. In this month’s puzzles, a higher par went with fewer accepted words.

Which letters came up most?

Counting the 12 letters on each of the 31 boxes gives 372 letter slots. The most common letters were I (28 days), R and A (27 each), O (24), E and T (23 each) and N (22). The rarest were J (4 days), Q and Z (5 each) and V and X (6 each). Vowels did not fill the box: A, E, I, O and U together made up 120 of the 372 slots, or 32%.

What this tells you for November

These are patterns in last month’s puzzles, not a forecast of any answer. They can still shape how you play.

• Look for one long word first. In 24 of 31 solutions, one word used 8 or more different letters, and 14 days had a word of 10 letters or more.
• Aim for two words, whatever par says. The Times found a two-word solution on all 31 days, including the eight par-6 days.
• Expect fewer valid words on higher-par days. Par-6 puzzles averaged 1,081 accepted words against 1,490 on par-4 days, so check a word against the list of accepted words before you commit to it.
• Start from common letters. I, R, A, O, E, T and N led the month, so a first word built on them is a reasonable place to begin.
• Do not count on a short answer. The shortest solutions still had 13 letters.

Mark your own streak on the November 2026 printable calendar, and keep this month’s record on the October 2026 printable calendar.

Printable list of the October 2026 solutions

The printable sheet lists every date and solution on one page, so you can check a missed day without searching.