Spelling Bee answers for October 22, 2026
The Thursday NYT Spelling Bee had 65 words, 310 points and 3 pangrams. Every answer is listed below, with the letter grid and the points for each rank.
Puzzle by Sam Ezersky
The 3 pangrams
Showing all 3 words.
Pangrams3
All 65 answers
Showing all 65 words.
a5
b10
c11
e2
h19
l7
t11
At a glance
- Words
- 65
- Points
- 310
- Pangrams
- 3
- Longest word
- 10 letters
- No perfect pangram
- Bingo: a word starts with every letter
- Average word: 5.5 letters
Maximum score 310. Genius takes 217 points: the fastest route is 29 words, starting with the longest ones, all 5 letters or longer.
Points for each rank
| Rank | Share | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 0% | 0 |
| Good Start | 2% | 6 |
| Moving Up | 5% | 16 |
| Good | 8% | 25 |
| Solid | 15% | 47 |
| Nice | 25% | 78 |
| Great | 40% | 124 |
| Amazing | 50% | 155 |
| Genius | 70% | 217 |
| Queen Bee | 100% | 310 |
Real words that do not count
- haha
Letter grid
| First letter | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 5 |
| b | 3 | 6 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 10 |
| c | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 11 |
| e | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| h (center letter) | 9 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | 19 |
| l | 2 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 7 |
| t | 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Total | 22 | 20 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 65 |
Two-letter list
- ac1 word
- at4 words
- ba4 words
- be3 words
- bl3 words
- ca5 words
- ch6 words
- ea1 word
- et1 word
- ha10 words
- he9 words
- la3 words
- le4 words
- ta1 word
- te6 words
- th4 words
How the Oct 22, 2026 puzzle played
The center letter was H with A, B, C, E, L, T around it. Answers ran from 4 to 10 letters, 5.5 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 217 points. Browse other days in the Spelling Bee archive, try today's Spelling Bee hints or play a fresh puzzle in unlimited mode.