All 28 valid words for the NYT Spelling Bee. Center letter: H.
💬 Join the discussionHeads up — this shows the hardest word of the day.
With H required in every answer, the July 30, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee was one of the harder puzzle — 28 valid words in all.
With only 28 valid words, this puzzle had a smaller word pool than average, which often makes it trickier to reach Genius. The outer letters were E, G, N, O, T, U, and the longest answer aside from the pangram ran 10 letters for 10 points. Reaching Genius required 86 points out of a possible 122; see how this compares in the full answers archive.
At 14 points, the pangram was the most valuable single word in the grid. 11 of the 28 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 28 words for the July 30, 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 | 9 | 10 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 |
| G | 2 | · | 1 | · | · | · | 3 |
| H | 5 | 1 | · | · | · | · | 6 |
| N | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 |
| O | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 | 2 |
| T | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | · | · | 13 |
| U | · | · | 1 | · | 1 | · | 2 |
| Total | 11 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 28 |
EN1GH2GO1HE1HO2HU3NO1OU2TE3TH7TO3UN2
Spoiler warning — the complete answer list is below.
Definitions for the July 30, 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 OUTTHOUGHT and UNTHOUGHT consistently know their Latin and Greek roots. These books teach the exact system that unlocks words like TOUGHEN before you ever see the puzzle.
How did today go? Share your progress, favorite finds, or where you got stuck. Be kind — no spoilers-shaming.
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