All 42 valid words for the NYT Spelling Bee. Center letter: T.
💬 Join the discussionHeads up — this shows the hardest word of the day.
With T required in every answer, the August 29, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee was a generous puzzle — 42 valid words in all.
With 42 valid words, this puzzle offered more paths to Genius than most, though finding every word still required broad vocabulary coverage. The outer letters were A, D, H, I, N, O, and the longest answer aside from the pangram ran 10 letters for 10 points. Reaching Genius required 129 points out of a possible 184; see how this compares in the full answers archive.
At 17 points, the pangram was the most valuable single word in the grid. 18 of the 42 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 42 words for the August 29, 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 | 10 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | · | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| D | 3 | 2 | · | · | 1 | · | 6 |
| H | 3 | 1 | · | · | · | · | 4 |
| I | 2 | 1 | · | · | · | 2 | 5 |
| N | · | 1 | 3 | · | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| O | 2 | · | · | · | · | · | 2 |
| T | 7 | 3 | 3 | · | · | · | 13 |
| Total | 18 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 42 |
AD1AN4AT1DA1DH1DI2DO2HA2HI1HO1ID1IN3IO1NA3NI1NO2OA1ON1TA4TH3TI2TO4
Spoiler warning — the complete answer list is below.
Definitions for the August 29, 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 ANNOTATION and INITIATION consistently know their Latin and Greek roots. These books teach the exact system that unlocks words like NATIONHOOD before you ever see the puzzle.
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