I found the answer to yesterday's HiveWord quite puzzling - and so did at least three other Hivers.
The reason I didn't try this word before is that Maria is a name, and I thought proper nouns weren't allowed as an answer.
I finally solved this puzzle on my fifth attempt by using a combination of logic and elimination (thanks, Sherlock!).
Maria must be a real word, but it's one I have never come across before. So, I looked it up in Chambers English Dictionary.
When I looked up maria, it said 'see mare'.
A mare is any of the level, dark areas of the Moon or Mars. These were once perceived to be seas.
Mare is a Latin word that means sea. For example, the Moon's Mare Tranquillitatis means The Sea of Tranquillity.
Maria is the plural of mare.