NYT Spelling Bee Answers and Analysis

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Answers to yesterday's Bee

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The official answers for today's puzzle are:

Click on the arrow to show the definition.
Click outside the pop-up to close it.

airmail ↗
alit ↗
aria ↗
aril ↗
armpit ↗
atilt ↗
atria ↗
atrial ↗
imam ↗
impair ↗
impala ↗
impart ↗
impartial ↗
lair ↗
lariat ↗
liar ↗
lilt ↗
lima ↗
limit ↗
limp ↗
lira ↗
mail ↗
maim ↗
malaria ↗
malarial ↗
marital ↗
martial ↗
militia ↗
mill ↗
mitral ↗
mitt ↗
pail ↗
pair ↗
palatial ↗
papilla ↗
partial ↗
partita ↗
pill ↗
pillar ↗
pimp ↗
pipit ↗
pita ↗
pitapat ↗
plait ↗
prim ↗
primal ↗
primp ↗
rail ↗
raita ↗
rattail ↗
rial ↗
rill ↗
tail ↗
taillamp ↗
tali ↗
tallit ↗
tamari ↗
tapir ↗
tatami ↗
tiara ↗
tilapia ↗
till ↗
tilt ↗
tipi ↗
trail ↗
trait ↗
trial ↗
trill ↗
trim ↗
trip ↗

Words not in official answer list

Number of Pangrams: 1

Maximum Puzzle Score: 284

Number of Answers: 70

Points Needed for Genius: 199

Genius requires between 29 and 60 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 74% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 68% of the remaining points to reach genius.

Other days with this pangram:

January 08, 2025 (Center Letter: P)
November 06, 2022 (Center Letter: M)

The button below will reveal a chart with the number of words by each letter. Red bars indicate that there is a pangram(s) starting with that letter.

How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

Today's score of 284 was in the 90th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on September 08, 2026.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 70 possible answers rank it in the 98th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on August 11, 2026.
The highest number of answers was 81 on June 08, 2019.
The lowest number of answers was 16 on March 27, 2023.

It takes a 7-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on September 10, 2026.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.2.
For all Bees, the average word length has been 5.3.

Haven't I seen these letters before?

Hover over a letter to see its first and most recent appearance in the Bee!

Haven't I seen these words before?

The most common words in the Bee are:

noon 249
loll 229
toot 223
nana 209
naan 209
tilt 163
till 163
lilt 163
nene 161
mamma 161
mama 161
tint 160
onion 153
acai 152
acacia 152
toon 150
onto 150
olio 140
anon 140
anal 140
tact 130
mitt 130
dodo 130
baba 130
papa 129
lulu 127
lull 127
loon 124
booboo 124
boob 124
poop 122
calla 122
call 122
cocci 121
tattoo 120
tartar 120
tart 120
ratatat 120
moon 120
mono 120
attar 119
tutu 116
aria 116
natant 115
cancan 115
ally 115
allay 115
momma 114
meme 114
ammo 114

How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 123,114 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 11,135 unique words.
Below are the distributions of the lengths of these words.

Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

You may be wondering why these words aren't here*:

aalii
airt
airtram
amia
amir
amrit
amrita
arapaima
armilla
atrip
attrit
ilia
ilial
impi
laari
lamia
lamplit
lapilli
lari
lati
latilla
latria
limpa
lipa
liri
litai
maill
mair
mamilla
mammati
mammilla
maria
milia
miliaria
miliarial
militaria
milliamp
milpa
milt
miri
pali
pallia
pallial
palpi
papillar
pappi
pial
pilar
pili
pima
pipa
pipal
pitta
priapi
prill
prima
primatal
primatial
primi
primipara
raia
rami
ramtil
ramtilla
riata
riprap
talaria
tallitim
tirl
titi
tripart

*Because the New York Times considers them obscure or offensive.

airmail

No Definition Found.

alit

No Definition Found.

aria

No Definition Found.

aril

No Definition Found.

armpit

No Definition Found.

atilt

No Definition Found.

atria

No Definition Found.

atrial

No Definition Found.

imam

No Definition Found.

impair

No Definition Found.

impala

No Definition Found.

impart

No Definition Found.

impartial

No Definition Found.

lair

No Definition Found.

lariat

No Definition Found.

liar

No Definition Found.

lilt

No Definition Found.

lima

No Definition Found.

limit

No Definition Found.

limp

No Definition Found.

lira

No Definition Found.

mail

No Definition Found.

maim

No Definition Found.

malaria

No Definition Found.

malarial

No Definition Found.

marital

No Definition Found.

martial

No Definition Found.

militia

No Definition Found.

mill

No Definition Found.

mitral

No Definition Found.

mitt

No Definition Found.

pail

No Definition Found.

pair

No Definition Found.

palatial

No Definition Found.

papilla

No Definition Found.

partial

No Definition Found.

partita

No Definition Found.

pill

No Definition Found.

pillar

No Definition Found.

pimp

No Definition Found.

pipit

No Definition Found.

pita

No Definition Found.

pitapat

No Definition Found.

plait

No Definition Found.

prim

No Definition Found.

primal

No Definition Found.

primp

No Definition Found.

rail

No Definition Found.

raita

No Definition Found.

rattail

No Definition Found.

rial

No Definition Found.

rill

No Definition Found.

tail

No Definition Found.

taillamp

No Definition Found.

tali

No Definition Found.

tallit

No Definition Found.

tamari

No Definition Found.

tapir

No Definition Found.

tatami

No Definition Found.

tiara

No Definition Found.

tilapia

No Definition Found.

till

No Definition Found.

tilt

No Definition Found.

tipi

No Definition Found.

trail

No Definition Found.

trait

No Definition Found.

trial

No Definition Found.

trill

No Definition Found.

trim

No Definition Found.

trip

No Definition Found.