Spelling Bee Answers Today: May 20, 2026

Below you will find all of the answers for the Spelling Bee game from the New York Times for Wednesday, 20th May 2026.

Stuck on today’s NYT Spelling Bee? This page updates daily with hints, the pangram, and the complete answer list! Whether you want a gentle nudge or the full solution, you’re in the right place.

How the Game Works

The Spelling Bee presents players with a honeycomb grid of seven letters. Every valid word must be at least four letters long and must include the centre letter. Letters can be reused as many times as you like. Four-letter words score one point. Longer words earn one point per letter. Each puzzle is guaranteed to contain at least one pangram (a word that uses all seven letters) which earns a seven-point bonus on top of its letter count.

The Ranking System

As you find valid words and gather points, you go up through a series of ranks: Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing, and finally Genius. 

Reaching Genius requires scoring 70% of the total possible points for that day’s puzzle. Above Genius sits one more level: Queen Bee. 

Queen Bee is an unofficial rank awarded to players who find every single valid word in the puzzle. Only around 25% of players in any given week.

The Pangram: Where the Points Are

The pangram is the fastest route to Genius. Some puzzles contain a “Perfect Pangram”: a word that uses all seven letters exactly once, with no repetition. 

Perfect Pangrams are rare and always exactly seven letters long. 

Finding the pangram early unlocks momentum. The long word often contains shorter words within it, and spotting those fragments is one of the most reliable strategies in the game.

One Rule Worth Knowing

Editor Sam Ezersky has stated his intention to never include the letter S in a puzzle, on the grounds that it would make the game too easy by allowing simple plurals. But if it’s not there in there first place they you can’t use it anyway!