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Monday, February 2, 2026

Welcome to today’s New York Times Spelling Bee hints and answers. Today’s puzzle features an average-looking board with a center letter of “P”. With a total of 38 words to find resulting in 159 total possible points, we are looking at an average number of points. There is just a single pangram hiding in today’s letter set. Whether you’re stuck looking for those elusive final few words to reach Genius rank, or simply seeking a gentle nudge to get the ball rolling, you’re in the right place. Dive into our comprehensive two-letter lists, explore our word length grid, and uncover targeted Merriam-Webster definitions tailored specifically to help you without giving the entire game away immediately. Good luck mastering the hive!

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Puzzle Stats

Total Words :

38

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

159

Genius Score :

111

Pangram

Finding the nyt pangram is key to reaching “Genius” status.
Below is progressive reveal to help you achieve it.

8-letter pangram 0 / 8 letters revealed
????????

NYT Spelling Bee Hints & Grid

Maximize your score without ruining the fun.

The grid shows how many words start with each letter, broken down by word length.

4 5 6 7 8 Σ
A – 2 – – – 2
E 1 – – – 1 2
H 2 2 3 – – 7
N 2 1 – 1 – 4
P 7 8 4 – – 19
Y 1 1 2 – – 4
Σ 13 14 9 1 1 38

Knowing the first two letters of a missing word is often the perfect clue. Here is the two letter list for today’s puzzle.

  • AP 2
  • EP 2
  • HA 2
  • HE 1
  • HI 2
  • HY 2
  • NA 1
  • NE 1
  • NI 2
  • PA 8
  • PE 6
  • PI 5
  • YA 1
  • YI 3

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

AP

  1. AP5 — sounds like alien, paean
  2. AP5 — sounds like acne, mania

EP

  1. EP4 — sounds like easy, pea
  2. EP8 —

HA

  1. HA6 — to take place; be; befall; betide; chance sounds like apple, ashen, aspen, baron, barren
  2. HA5 — experiencing pleasure, satisfaction, or delight; coming or happening by good luck especially unexpectedly; feeling that one’s needs or desires have been met; blissful; chuffed sounds like hippie

HE

  1. HE4 — a considerable amount; a quantity of things thrown or stacked on one another; abundance; barrel; basketful sounds like beep, c****, deep, hip

HI

  1. HI6 — sounds like happy
  2. HI5 — as in potbellied, paunchy; paunchy; potbellied; dumpy; squat sounds like happy

HY

  1. HY4 — to provide publicity for; ballyhoo; boost; pitch; plug sounds like heap, height, hide, high, higher
  2. HY6 — sounds like heighten, siphon

NA

  1. NA4 — sounds like ape, cape, nip, rape, shape

NE

  1. NE4 — sounds like beep, cheap, deep, heap, jeep

NI

  1. NI7 — sounds like kingpin, linchpin
  2. NI5 — having a low or subnormal temperature; having a powerfully stimulating odor or flavor; moving, proceeding, or acting with great speed; algid; arctic sounds like hippie

PA

  1. PA5 — a formal expression of praise; accolade; citation; commendation; dithyramb sounds like eon, peony, pun
  2. PA4 — a sharp unpleasant sensation usually felt in some specific part of the body; a state of great suffering of body or mind; strict attentiveness to what one is doing; ache; pang sounds like arraign, bane, cane, chain, feign
  3. PA4 — sounds like arraign, bane, cane, chain, feign
  4. PA6 — sounds like bikini, canine, dainty, faintly, genie
  5. PA4 — a male human parent; dad; daddy; father; old man sounds like pop, poppy
  6. PA6 — sounds like pecan, pup, puppet, puppy, upon
  7. PA5 — sounds like happy, peppy, poppy, puppy
  8. PA5 —

PE

  1. PE6 — sounds like paean
  2. PE4 — sounds like bean, dean, gene, keen, lean
  3. PE4 — an instance of looking especially briefly; cast; eye; gander; glance sounds like beep, cheap, deep, heap, jeep
  4. PE5 — sounds like den, hen, pain, pair, pan
  5. PE5 — a mean grasping person who is usually stingy with money; cheapskate; churl; hunks; miser sounds like any, many, parry, pony
  6. PE5 — having active strength of body or mind; having much high-spirited energy and movement; dynamic; energetic; flush sounds like parry, poppy, preppie, preppy, puppy

PI

  1. PI4 — as in long, yearn; long; yearn; agonize; chafe sounds like dine, fine, line, mine, o****
  2. PI5 — sounds like guinea, penny, pony, tinny
  3. PI5 — sounds like guinea, penny, pony, tinny
  4. PI4 — a long hollow cylinder for carrying a substance (as a liquid or gas); an enclosed wooden vessel for holding beverages; channel; conduit; duct sounds like hype, pap, peep, pop, pope
  5. PI6 — something very good of its kind; beaut; beauty; bee’s knees; cat’s meow sounds like begin, bidden, herein, kingpin, poplin

YA

  1. YA5 — sounds like happy, yuppie

YI

  1. YI4 — sounds like hype, pipe, ripe, type, wipe
  2. YI6 — how delightful; glory; ha; hallelujah; hey sounds like hippie, yuppie
  3. YI6 — sounds like hippie, yuppie

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

Ready to see the words? Use the toggles below to reveal today’s nyt spelling bee answers.

  • epee
  • heap
  • hype
  • nape
  • neap
  • pain
  • pane
  • papa
  • peen
  • peep
  • pine
  • pipe
  • yipe

  • apian
  • apnea
  • epiphany
  • happen
  • happy
  • hippie
  • hippy
  • hyphen
  • ninepin
  • nippy
  • paean
  • panini
  • papaya
  • pappy
  • payee
  • peahen
  • penne
  • penny
  • peppy
  • piney
  • pinny
  • pippin
  • yappy
  • yippee
  • yippie

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 58 valid dictionary words that are excluded. If you found a valid dictionary word that wasn’t accepted, it’s likely due to the New York Times Spelling Bee’s strict editorial criteria. Sam Ezersky, the puzzle’s editor, manually curates the daily word list to balance difficulty and fairness.

  • Obscure or Highly Technical Words: Medical, legal, and intensely specific scientific jargon is frequently omitted to keep the puzzle accessible to a general audience.
  • Offensive Language: Vulgar or derogatory words are universally banned.
  • Proper Nouns: Capitalized names of people or places are never allowed.
  • Hyphenated Words: Multi-word combinations containing hyphens are excluded.
  • Letter S / Plurals: The letter “S” is generally never included on a Spelling Bee board to avoid making the game too simple by tacking plurals onto every word.

  • AHEAP
  • APAY
  • APPAY
  • EPHA
  • EPHAH
  • HANAP
  • HEAPY
  • HIPPEN
  • HIPPIN
  • HYPHA
  • HYPHAE
  • HYPHY
  • NAPA
  • NAPPA
  • NAPPE
  • NAPPIE
  • NAPPY
  • NEEP
  • NINEPENNY
  • NIPA
  • PAAN
  • PANNE
  • PANPIPE
  • PAPAIN
  • PAPAYAN
  • PAPE
  • PAPHIAN
  • PAPPI
  • PEAN
  • PEEPE
  • PEIN
  • PENE
  • PENI
  • PENIE
  • PENNA
  • PENNAE
  • PENNI
  • PENNIA
  • PENNINE
  • PHENE
  • PIAN
  • PIANI
  • PINA
  • PINENE
  • PINNA
  • PINNAE
  • PINNIE
  • PINY
  • PINYIN
  • PIPA
  • PIPI
  • PIPPY
  • PIPY
  • PYIN
  • PYNE
  • YAPP
  • YAPPIE
  • YIPPY