Spelling Bee answers for October 17, 2026
The Saturday NYT Spelling Bee had 33 words, 144 points and 1 pangram. Every answer is listed below, with the letter grid and the points for each rank.
Puzzle by Sam Ezersky
The pangram
Showing all 1 words.
Pangrams1
All 33 answers
Showing all 33 words.
a6
b3
l3
m15
n2
t2
u2
At a glance
- Words
- 33
- Points
- 144
- Pangram
- 1
- Longest word
- 8 letters
- No perfect pangram
- Bingo: a word starts with every letter
- Average word: 5.2 letters
Maximum score 144. Genius takes 101 points: the fastest route is 15 words, starting with the longest ones, all 5 letters or longer.
Points for each rank
| Rank | Share | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 0% | 0 |
| Good Start | 2% | 3 |
| Moving Up | 5% | 7 |
| Good | 8% | 12 |
| Solid | 15% | 22 |
| Nice | 25% | 36 |
| Great | 40% | 58 |
| Amazing | 50% | 72 |
| Genius | 70% | 101 |
| Queen Bee | 100% | 144 |
Real words that do not count
- matt
Letter grid
| First letter | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| b | 2 | - | 1 | - | 3 |
| l | 2 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| m (center letter) | 6 | 4 | 5 | - | 15 |
| n | 1 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| t | - | - | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| u | - | 1 | 1 | - | 2 |
| Total | 12 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 33 |
Two-letter list
- al3 words
- am1 word
- au2 words
- ba2 words
- bl1 word
- la2 words
- ll1 word
- ma10 words
- mu5 words
- nu2 words
- ta1 word
- tu1 word
- um1 word
- un1 word
How the Oct 17, 2026 puzzle played
The center letter was M with A, B, L, N, T, U around it. Answers ran from 4 to 8 letters, 5.2 on average. There was no perfect pangram (a seven-letter word using each letter once). It was also a bingo day: at least one word started with each of the seven letters.
Genius needed 101 points. Browse other days in the Spelling Bee archive, try today's Spelling Bee hints or play a fresh puzzle in unlimited mode.