All 41 valid words for the NYT Spelling Bee. Center letter: A.
💬 Join the discussionHeads up — this shows the hardest word of the day.
September 18, 2026 brought a generous NYT Spelling Bee: 41 valid words, every single one containing the center letter A.
With 41 valid words, this puzzle offered more paths to Genius than most, though finding every word still required broad vocabulary coverage. The outer letters were C, I, N, Q, T, U, and the longest answer aside from the pangram ran 9 letters for 9 points. Reaching Genius required 147 points out of a possible 209; see how this compares in the full answers archive.
The pangram used all 7 letters for 15 points — the highest-scoring word of the day (tap the spoiler above if you want it). If pangrams are where you get stuck, the pangram-spotting guide walks through the letter patterns that give them away.
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.
Prefer a nudge over the full answer key? Here is how the 41 words for the September 18, 2026 Spelling Bee break down — how many begin with each letter, at each word length — followed by the two-letter start list. Work these first, then reveal the complete list only if you get stuck.
| Start \ Len | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | · | 13 |
| C | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | · | 7 |
| I | · | · | 2 | · | · | · | 2 |
| N | 2 | · | 2 | · | · | · | 4 |
| Q | · | 1 | 2 | · | · | · | 3 |
| T | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | · | 1 | 12 |
| Total | 10 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 41 |
AC4AN2AQ4AT2AU1CA6CI1IN2NA3NI1QU3TA9TI2TU1
Spoiler warning — the complete answer list is below.
Definitions for the September 18, 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 TACTICIAN and AQUANAUT consistently know their Latin and Greek roots. These books teach the exact system that unlocks words like ACQUAINT before you ever see the puzzle.
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