Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for October 9, 2026

The complete word list, every pangram, and the seven letters of the hive for today's NYT Spelling Bee. Hand-checked at release.

Words37
Pangrams4
Points possible224
Center letterY
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published October 9, 2026·3 min read

Hand-checked every word in this list against the live Spelling Bee on the morning of release. Spotted an error?

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Today's seven letters

The center letter is yellow and must appear in every valid word. The six surrounding letters are optional. Every word in the puzzle is at least four letters long.

IN
TYE
LG

Stats & rank thresholds

The Spelling Bee scoring tops out at Queen Bee — the rank you earn for finding every word, including all pangrams. Here are today's point thresholds:

Beginner
0 pts
Moving Up
18 pts
Good
34 pts
Solid
56 pts
Nice
90 pts
Great
112 pts
Amazing
157 pts
Genius
191 pts
Queen Bee
224 pts
Total words
37
Pangrams
4
Possible points
224

Pangrams

A pangram uses all seven letters from today's hive at least once. Each pangram is worth its letter count + a 7-point bonus.

Today's 4 pangrams
intelligently +20 ptsnegligently +18 ptstellingly +16 ptsgentility +16 pts

The full word list

All 37 valid Spelling Bee solutions for October 9, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters8 words
eelyeggyillyittylilytinyyellyeti
5 letters11 words
elegyeyingleggylintylyingnettyninnyteenytinnytyingyente
6 letters10 words
entityeyeingeyeletgentlygigglylenitynigglyninetytinglytinily
7 letters2 words
yellingyenning
8 letters1 word
intently
9 letters3 words
gentilitylenientlytellingly
11 letters1 word
negligently
13 letters1 word
intelligently

Top-scoring words today

The five words worth the most points in today's puzzle — mostly pangrams and long compound words. These alone can push you over the Genius threshold.

intelligently +20negligently +18gentility +16tellingly +16leniently +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for October 9, 2026 has 37 valid words for a total of 224 possible points. Hitting Queen Bee means finding every single one. The Genius threshold is roughly 85 percent of the total, so today that's about 191 pts.

Stuck on a clue? Jump back to the Spelling Bee hub for strategy tips, the rank-by-rank breakdown, the full archive, and an explainer on how the NYT picks each day's seven letters.

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Catch up on the last week of Spelling Bees. Each link goes straight to that day's full word list.