NYT Spelling Bee Answers and Analysis

Sunday, September 27, 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.

defend ↗
defended ↗
defied ↗
defile ↗
defiled ↗
define ↗
defined ↗
defund ↗
defunded ↗
deified ↗
duff ↗
duffel ↗
duffle ↗
edified ↗
elfin ↗
feed ↗
feel ↗
felid ↗
feline ↗
fell ↗
felled ↗
fend ↗
fended ↗
fennel ↗
feud ↗
feuded ↗
fiddle ↗
fiddled ↗
fief ↗
field ↗
fielded ↗
fiend ↗
fife ↗
fifed ↗
file ↗
filed ↗
fill ↗
filled ↗
find ↗
fine ↗
fined ↗
finned ↗
fled ↗
flee ↗
flied ↗
flue ↗
fluff ↗
fluffed ↗
fluid ↗
fuddle ↗
fuddled ↗
fuel ↗
fueled ↗
fulfill ↗
fulfilled ↗
full ↗
fund ↗
funded ↗
funnel ↗
funneled ↗
infidel ↗
infield ↗
infill ↗
infilled ↗
life ↗
lifeline ↗
luff ↗
luffed ↗
needful ↗
nullified ↗
undefended ↗
undefined ↗
unfed ↗
unfiled ↗
unfilled ↗
unfulfilled ↗
unfunded ↗
unified ↗

Words not in official answer list

Number of Pangrams: 4

Maximum Puzzle Score: 431

Number of Answers: 78

Points Needed for Genius: 302

Genius requires between 38 and 67 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 82% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 65% of the remaining points to reach genius.

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 431 was in the 100th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on May 16, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 78 possible answers rank it in the 100th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on September 20, 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 25, 2026.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.9.
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 251
loll 229
toot 223
nana 212
naan 212
tilt 163
till 163
nene 163
lilt 163
mamma 162
mama 162
tint 161
onion 155
acai 154
acacia 154
toon 151
onto 151
anon 141
anal 141
olio 140
tact 131
papa 130
mitt 130
dodo 130
baba 130
lulu 127
lull 127
booboo 125
boob 125
poop 124
loon 124
cocci 122
calla 122
call 122
tattoo 120
tartar 120
tart 120
ratatat 120
moon 120
mono 120
attar 119
natant 117
cancan 117
tutu 116
aria 116
momma 115
ammo 115
ally 115
allay 115
meme 114

How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 123,769 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 11,150 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*:

defi
defuel
defueled
defuelled
delf
diff
duffed
effendi
enuf
feued
fille
flued
fuelled
fulfil
fulled
fundi
funned
funnelled
infeed
lief
lifeful
neif
nidified
niff
niffed
nuff
undefiled
unneedful

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

defend

No Definition Found.

defended

No Definition Found.

defied

No Definition Found.

defile

No Definition Found.

defiled

No Definition Found.

define

No Definition Found.

defined

No Definition Found.

defund

No Definition Found.

defunded

No Definition Found.

deified

No Definition Found.

duff

No Definition Found.

duffel

No Definition Found.

duffle

No Definition Found.

edified

No Definition Found.

elfin

No Definition Found.

feed

No Definition Found.

feel

No Definition Found.

felid

No Definition Found.

feline

No Definition Found.

fell

No Definition Found.

felled

No Definition Found.

fend

No Definition Found.

fended

No Definition Found.

fennel

No Definition Found.

feud

No Definition Found.

feuded

No Definition Found.

fiddle

No Definition Found.

fiddled

No Definition Found.

fief

No Definition Found.

field

No Definition Found.

fielded

No Definition Found.

fiend

No Definition Found.

fife

No Definition Found.

fifed

No Definition Found.

file

No Definition Found.

filed

No Definition Found.

fill

No Definition Found.

filled

No Definition Found.

find

No Definition Found.

fine

No Definition Found.

fined

No Definition Found.

finned

No Definition Found.

fled

No Definition Found.

flee

No Definition Found.

flied

No Definition Found.

flue

No Definition Found.

fluff

No Definition Found.

fluffed

No Definition Found.

fluid

No Definition Found.

fuddle

No Definition Found.

fuddled

No Definition Found.

fuel

No Definition Found.

fueled

No Definition Found.

fulfill

No Definition Found.

fulfilled

No Definition Found.

full

No Definition Found.

fund

No Definition Found.

funded

No Definition Found.

funnel

No Definition Found.

funneled

No Definition Found.

infidel

No Definition Found.

infield

No Definition Found.

infill

No Definition Found.

infilled

No Definition Found.

life

No Definition Found.

lifeline

No Definition Found.

luff

No Definition Found.

luffed

No Definition Found.

needful

No Definition Found.

nullified

No Definition Found.

undefended

No Definition Found.

undefined

No Definition Found.

unfed

No Definition Found.

unfilled

No Definition Found.

unfulfilled

No Definition Found.

unfunded

No Definition Found.

unified

No Definition Found.

unfiled

No Definition Found.