All 40 valid words for the NYT Spelling Bee. Center letter: N.
💬 Join the discussionHeads up — this shows the hardest words of the day.
With N required in every answer, the September 13, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee was a generous puzzle — 40 valid words in all.
With 40 valid words, this puzzle offered more paths to Genius than most, though finding every word still required broad vocabulary coverage. The outer letters were A, D, I, O, T, X, and the longest answer aside from the pangram ran 10 letters for 10 points. Reaching Genius required 156 points out of a possible 222; see how this compares in the full answers archive.
At 18 points, the pangram was the most valuable single word in the grid. 13 of the 40 answers were 4-letter words worth 1 point each, so the real climb toward Genius came from the longer finds — our Genius strategy guide breaks down how to spot them.
Prefer to solve it yourself? Get spoiler-free hints for today's Spelling Bee instead — the words grouped by starting letter and length, with a nudge toward the pangram, so nothing is spoiled until you ask.
Not ready to spoil the whole puzzle? The grid below shows how many of the September 13, 2026 answers start with each letter and how long they run, and the two-letter list gives the count for each opening pair. It is the fastest way to close out the last few words without seeing every answer.
| Start \ Len | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| D | 2 | · | 1 | · | 1 | · | · | · | 4 |
| I | 1 | · | · | · | · | · | 2 | · | 3 |
| N | 4 | 1 | 3 | · | 1 | · | · | · | 9 |
| O | 1 | 1 | · | 1 | · | 1 | · | · | 4 |
| T | 2 | 4 | 1 | · | 1 | · | · | · | 8 |
| Total | 13 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 40 |
AD1AN9AT1AX1DI3DO1IN3NA6NO3ON2OX2TA4TI2TO2
Spoiler warning — the complete answer list is below.
Definitions for the September 13, 2026 answers — so you know exactly what you found, or what you missed. Pangrams are marked ★.
Spoiler warning — every answer word is spelled out and defined below.
Word definitions from WordNet® 3.1, Princeton University.
The players who find ANNOTATION and INITIATION consistently know their Latin and Greek roots. These books teach the exact system that unlocks words like ANTIOXIDANT before you ever see the puzzle.
How did today go? Share your progress, favorite finds, or where you got stuck. Be kind — no spoilers-shaming.
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