The complete answer list for yesterday’s New York Times Spelling Bee (September 22, 2026) — every one of the 18 words with point values, center letter N. Missed one? It’s here. Updated every day.
💬 Join the discussionHeads up — this shows the hardest word of the day.
With N required in every answer, the September 22, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee was one of the harder puzzle — 18 valid words in all.
With only 18 valid words, this puzzle had a smaller word pool than average, which often makes it trickier to reach Genius. The outer letters were E, I, O, Q, U, X, and the longest answer aside from the pangram ran 8 letters for 8 points. Reaching Genius required 55 points out of a possible 78; see how this compares in the full answers archive.
At 14 points, the pangram was the most valuable single word in the grid. 7 of the 18 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.
Prefer a nudge over the full answer key? Here is how the 18 words for the September 22, 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 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | · | 3 |
| I | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 |
| N | 6 | · | · | · | 1 | 7 |
| O | 1 | 1 | · | · | · | 2 |
| Q | · | 1 | · | 1 | · | 2 |
| U | · | 1 | 1 | · | · | 2 |
| X | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 |
| Total | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 18 |
EN1EQ2IN1NE2NI1NO4ON1OX1QU2UN2XE1
Spoiler warning — the complete answer list is below.
Definitions for the September 22, 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 NONUNION and QUININE consistently know their Latin and Greek roots. These books teach the exact system that unlocks words like EQUINOX before you ever see the puzzle.