NYT Spelling Bee Answers and Analysis

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Answers to yesterday's Bee

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The official answers for today's puzzle are:

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Click outside the pop-up to close it.

addition ↗
anion ↗
annatto ↗
annotation ↗
anoint ↗
anon ↗
anoxia ↗
anti ↗
antioxidant ↗
antitoxin ↗
attain ↗
axon ↗
dino ↗
dint ↗
dioxin ↗
donation ↗
initiation ↗
into ↗
intonation ↗
naan ↗
nada ↗
naiad ↗
nana ↗
natant ↗
nation ↗
noon ↗
notation ↗
notion ↗
onion ↗
onto ↗
oxidant ↗
oxidation ↗
taint ↗
tannin ↗
taxation ↗
taxon ↗
tint ↗
titan ↗
toon ↗
toxin ↗

Words not in official answer list

Number of Pangrams: 3

Maximum Puzzle Score: 222

Number of Answers: 40

Points Needed for Genius: 155

Genius requires between 17 and 36 words. You need at least a 9-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 89% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 61% of the remaining points to reach genius.

Other days with this pangram:

July 08, 2025 (Center Letter: O)
April 26, 2023 (Center Letter: A)
October 04, 2020 (Center Letter: T)

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 222 was in the 71st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on September 12, 2026.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 40 possible answers rank it in the 50th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on September 12, 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 9-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on July 19, 2026.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 6.0.
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 250
loll 229
toot 223
nana 210
naan 210
tilt 163
till 163
lilt 163
tint 161
nene 161
mamma 161
mama 161
onion 154
acai 152
acacia 152
toon 151
onto 151
anon 141
olio 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
natant 116
aria 116
cancan 115
ally 115
allay 115
momma 114
meme 114
ammo 114

How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 123,154 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*:

adnation
ananda
anatoxin
anatto
andantini
andantino
anna
annona
anoa
anta
antitax
atonia
attaint
axion
danio
dioxan
dona
donna
dotation
inanition
inia
inion
inti
iodation
iodin
iodination
nandin
nandina
nanna
nano
naoi
natation
nidation
nidi
ninon
nitid
niton
nodi
nona
nontax
nota
odonata
odontoid
tain
tanto
tian
titania
titian
tondi
tondo

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

addition

No Definition Found.

anion

No Definition Found.

annatto

No Definition Found.

annotation

No Definition Found.

anoint

No Definition Found.

anon

No Definition Found.

anoxia

No Definition Found.

anti

No Definition Found.

antioxidant

No Definition Found.

antitoxin

No Definition Found.

attain

No Definition Found.

axon

No Definition Found.

dino

No Definition Found.

dint

No Definition Found.

dioxin

No Definition Found.

donation

No Definition Found.

initiation

No Definition Found.

into

preposition

To or towards the inside of.
To or towards the region of.
Against, especially with force or violence.
Indicates transition into another form or substance.
After the start of.
Interested in or attracted to.
Expressing the operation of multiplication.
Expressing the operation of division, with the denominator given first. Usually with "goes".
Investigating the subject (of).

intonation

No Definition Found.

naan

No Definition Found.

nada

No Definition Found.

naiad

No Definition Found.

nana

No Definition Found.

natant

No Definition Found.

nation

No Definition Found.

noon

No Definition Found.

notation

No Definition Found.

notion

No Definition Found.

onion

No Definition Found.

onto

No Definition Found.

oxidant

No Definition Found.

oxidation

No Definition Found.

taint

No Definition Found.

tannin

No Definition Found.

taxation

No Definition Found.

taxon

No Definition Found.

tint

No Definition Found.

titan

No Definition Found.

toon

No Definition Found.

toxin

No Definition Found.