A
I
D
C
N
G
T

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Welcome to today’s New York Times Spelling Bee hints and answers. Today’s puzzle features a substantially larger than average board today, promising plenty of opportunities with a center letter of “C”. With a total of 50 words to find resulting in 324 total possible points, we are looking at a massively high scoring ceiling. Impressively, there are 3 pangrams to uncover. 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!

Rather see todays puzzle?

Puzzle Stats

Total Words :

50

Total Pangrams :

3

Total Points:

324

Genius Score :

227

Pangram

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

9-letter pangram 0 / 9 letters revealed
?????????
9-letter pangram 0 / 9 letters revealed
?????????
10-letter pangram 0 / 10 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 9 10 Σ
A 2 3 4 1 1 11
C 1 3 6 4 14
D 1 2 1 1 1 6
G 1 1
I 1 4 1 1 2 1 10
N 1 1
T 1 2 2 1 1 7
Σ 4 10 19 8 3 5 1 50

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

  • AC 6
  • AD 2
  • AN 2
  • AT 1
  • CA 12
  • CI 2
  • DA 1
  • DI 5
  • GI 1
  • IC 1
  • IN 9
  • NI 1
  • TA 5
  • TI 2

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

AC

  1. AC6sounds like occasion
  2. AC4sounds like occur, sky
  3. AC4 — causing or characterized by the one of the four basic taste sensations that is produced chiefly by acids; having or showing a habitually bad temper; marked by the use of wit that is intended to cause hurt feelings; acidic; acidulous sounds like added, arid, avid
  4. AC6 — causing or characterized by the one of the four basic taste sensations that is produced chiefly by acids; marked by the use of wit that is intended to cause hurt feelings; acid; acidulous; sour sounds like ascetic, civic, cynic, pacific
  5. AC5 — as in nailing; nailing; bringing about; effecting; effectuating sounds like icing, sing
  6. AC6 — serving in a position for the time being; ad interim; interim; provisional; provisionary

AD

  1. AD6 — a person who regularly uses drugs especially illegally; a person with a strong and habitual liking for something; dopehead; doper; druggie sounds like edict
  2. AD9 — causing or relating to a physiological need for certain drugs; addictive; habit-forming

AN

  1. AN7sounds like acid, ambassador, intercede, placid, tassel
  2. AN5 — causing or intended to cause laughter; given to good-natured joking or teasing; chucklesome; comedic; comic sounds like attic

AT

  1. AT5 — a room or unfinished space directly beneath the roof of a building; cockloft; garret; loft sounds like antic, stick, tick

CA

  1. CA5
  2. CA7 — to persuade someone to give you (something) for free; bludging; mooching; sponging; appealing (to) sounds like aging, bashing
  3. CA6 — to close or shut in by or as if by barriers; boxing (in); closeting; cooping (up); corralling sounds like aging, bashing
  4. CA6sounds like common, concave, condom
  5. CA6 — free in expressing one’s true feelings and opinions; marked by justice, honesty, and freedom from bias; direct; forthcoming; forthright
  6. CA5sounds like conned
  7. CA6 — as in strapping, leathering; blackjacking; cowhiding; flagellating; fustigating sounds like cunning, kenning
  8. CA5sounds like manna
  9. CA7 — to bring (as an action or operation) to an immediate end; to let go from office, service, or employment; breaking; breaking off; breaking up sounds like cunning, kenning, tanning
  10. CA4 — the degree to which something rises up from a position level with the horizon; diagonal; grade; gradient; inclination sounds like ant, aunt
  11. CA7 — as in hymn, anthem; anthem; canticle; carol; chorale
  12. CA7 — a place of business where alcoholic beverages are sold to be consumed on the premises; bar; barroom; café; dramshop

CI

  1. CI6sounds like acacia, arcade, became, decade, decayed
  2. CI6 — to give as an example; to make reference to or speak about briefly but specifically; adducing; instancing; mentioning sounds like biting, fighting, lighting, seating, sitting

DA

  1. DA7 — to perform a series of usually rhythmic bodily movements to music; to make an irregular series of quick, sudden movements; footing (it); hoofing (it); stepping sounds like advancing, dining, dressing, fencing, gassing

DI

  1. DI6 — to cut into small pieces; chopping; hashing; mincing sounds like missing
  2. DI5 — a statement or well-known remark that expresses an important idea, observation, or opinion; ipse dixits; assumptions; givens; hypotheticals
  3. DI9 — as in commanding, controlling; commanding; controlling; regimental; arrogant
  4. DI6 — as in academic, academician; academe; academic; academician; pedant sounds like adapt, addict, decant, deduct, duct
  5. DI8 — marked by or given to preaching moral values; homiletic; moralistic; moralizing; preachy sounds like dynastic

GI

  1. GI8 — unusually large; astronomical; Brobdingnagian; bumper; colossal sounds like antic, didactic, dynastic, frantic, organic

IC

  1. IC5 — as in fringe benefit; fringe benefit; award; prize; reward sounds like sing

IN

  1. IN6sounds like can’t, decant, enact, encamp, enchant
  2. IN9sounds like enchanting
  3. IN8 — serving or likely to arouse a strong reaction; charged; edgy; exciting; instigating sounds like exciting
  4. IN6sounds like syndicate
  5. IN10 — to serve as a sign or symptom of; to convey an idea indirectly; bespeaking; betokening; denoting
  6. IN7
  7. IN6 — to make a claim of wrongdoing against; accuse; charge; criminate; defame
  8. IN9 — to make a claim of wrongdoing against; accusing; charging; criminating; defaming sounds like unwitting
  9. IN6 — not lacking any part or member that properly belongs to it; compleat; complete; comprehensive; entire sounds like enact

NI

  1. NI6sounds like basic, basin, casing, chasten, evasive

TA

  1. TA5 — understood although not put into words; implicit; implied; unexpressed; unspoken sounds like asset, cast, caste, facet, facile
  2. TA4 — the ability to deal with others in touchy situations without offending them; diplomacy; tactfulness sounds like act, backed, fact, packed, pact
  3. TA6 — something done to achieve a particular goal; means; method; technique; way sounds like acting, active, antic, arctic, attic
  4. TA9sounds like technician
  5. TA6sounds like manic, panic, tonic, tunic

TI

  1. TI5 — as in colored, hued; colored; colorized; dyed; hued sounds like linked
  2. TI7 — unusually large; astronomical; Brobdingnagian; bumper; colossal sounds like italic

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • acai
  • acid
  • cant
  • tact

  • acacia
  • acidic
  • acing
  • acting
  • addict
  • addicting
  • antacid
  • antic
  • attic
  • cacti
  • cadging
  • caging
  • cancan
  • candid
  • canid
  • caning
  • canna
  • canning
  • cantata
  • cantina
  • cicada
  • citing
  • dancing
  • dicing
  • dicta
  • dictating
  • didact
  • didactic
  • gigantic
  • icing
  • incant
  • incanting
  • inciting
  • indica
  • indicating
  • indicia
  • indict
  • indicting
  • intact
  • niacin
  • tacit
  • tactic
  • tactician
  • tannic
  • tinct
  • titanic

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.

  • ACCA
  • ACCIDIA
  • ACCINGING
  • ACCITING
  • ACINI
  • ACINIC
  • ACTA
  • ACTANT
  • ACTIN
  • ACTINIA
  • ACTINIAN
  • ACTINIC
  • ADIACTINIC
  • AGACANT
  • AGGADIC
  • AGNATIC
  • ANICCA
  • ATACTIC
  • CAAING
  • CAATINGA
  • CACA
  • CADAGA
  • CADAGI
  • CADI
  • CAID
  • CAIN
  • CANADA
  • CANDIDA
  • CANG
  • CANN
  • CANTIC
  • CANTING
  • CATTING
  • CIDING
  • CINCT
  • CNIDA
  • DIACID
  • DIACIDIC
  • DIACT
  • DIACTINIC
  • DICT
  • DICTING
  • DINIC
  • ICTIC
  • INCAGING
  • INCITANT
  • INDICAN
  • INDICANT
  • NICAD
  • NICTATING
  • NICTITANT
  • NICTITATING
  • TACAN
  • TICCA
  • TICCING
  • TICING
  • TICTAC
  • TINCTING