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Wednesday, January 28, 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 “L”. With a total of 41 words to find resulting in 165 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 :

41

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

165

Genius Score :

115

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
?????????

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 9 Σ
A 3 2 5
F 6 4 2 1 1 14
L 7 2 1 10
O 2 1 1 4
R 1 1 2
U 1 1 2
V 2 2 4
Σ 16 14 7 3 1 41

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

  • AF 1
  • AL 2
  • AU 2
  • FA 2
  • FL 7
  • FO 3
  • FU 2
  • LA 3
  • LO 3
  • LU 4
  • OF 1
  • OR 1
  • OV 2
  • RO 1
  • RU 1
  • UV 2
  • VA 1
  • VU 3

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

AF

  1. AF5sounds like fool, foul, fowl

AL

  1. AL7
  2. AL5 — having or showing a lack of friendliness or interest in others; antisocial; asocial; buttoned-up; cold

AU

  1. AU5 — of, relating to, or experienced through the sense of hearing; acoustic; audial; audile; auditory sounds like choral, coral, laurel, moral, orally
  2. AU7 — the first appearance of light in the morning or the time of its appearance; cockcrow; dawn; dawning; day sounds like corporal, oracle, oral

FA

  1. FA4 — to go down from an upright position suddenly and involuntarily; to yield to the control or power of enemy forces; to go to a lower level especially abruptly; slip; stumble sounds like all, ball, bawl, call, feel
  2. FA7 — the amount by which something is lessened; abatement; decline; decrease; decrement sounds like flaw, flawed, floor, fluff

FL

  1. FL6 — a special quality or impression associated with something; something (as a spice or herb) that adds an agreeable or interesting taste to food; the property of a substance that can be identified by the sense of taste; air; ambience sounds like favor
  2. FL9 — very pleasing to the sense of taste; ambrosial; appetizing; dainty; delectable sounds like faithful, fateful, favorable, playful
  3. FL5 — the surface upon which a body of water lies; bed; bottom sounds like for, fore, four, lore
  4. FL5 — green leaves or plants; foliage; green; greenery; herbage
  5. FL6 — of or relating to flowers; flowered; flowery sounds like laurel
  6. FL5sounds like glower
  7. FL5 — a soft airy substance or covering; an unintentional departure from truth or accuracy; down; floss; fur sounds like bluff, slough

FO

  1. FO4 — as in filly, colt; colt; filly; gelding; mare sounds like boll, bowl, coal, dole, fail
  2. FO4 — a person who lacks good sense or judgment; a person formerly kept in a royal or noble household to amuse with jests and pranks; a person with a strong and habitual liking for something; berk; booby sounds like cool, fail, fall, feel, fell
  3. FO4 — causing intense displeasure, disgust, or resentment; marked by wet and windy conditions; not being in accordance with the rules or standards of what is fair in sport; abhorrent; abominable sounds like fail, fall, feel, fell, file

FU

  1. FU4 — containing or seeming to contain the greatest quantity or number possible; of the highest degree; having one’s appetite completely satisfied; brimful; brimming sounds like bull, fail, fall, feel, fell
  2. FU4 — as in curl, twirl; annulet; becket; coil; curl sounds like burl, curl, earl, fail, fall

LA

  1. LA5 — a young wingless often wormlike form (as a grub or caterpillar) that hatches from the egg of many insects; naiad; nymph
  2. LA6 — a young wingless often wormlike form (as a grub or caterpillar) that hatches from the egg of many insects; naiad; nymph sounds like marvel
  3. LA4sounds like java

LO

  1. LO4 — to spend time doing nothing; bum; chill; dally; dawdle sounds like laugh, leaf, life
  2. LO4 — to be limp from lack of water or vigor; to refrain from labor or exertion; to spend time doing nothing; droop; flag sounds like doll, lat, lull, pall
  3. LO5sounds like aloof, alpha, goof, goofy, hoof

LU

  1. LU4 — as in barbecue, cookout; barbecue; clambake; cookout; fry sounds like lewd, loom, loon, loop, loose
  2. LU4sounds like b****, buff, cuff, f****, huff
  3. LU4 — a momentary halt in an activity; break; breath; breather; interruption sounds like cul, cull, dull, gull, hull
  4. LU4 — something very good of its kind; beaut; beauty; bee’s knees; cat’s meow sounds like blew, blue, clue, cool, cooled

OF

  1. OF5 — discarded or useless material; chaff; deadwood; debris; dreck sounds like waffle

OR

  1. OR4 — expressed or communicated by voice; made or carried on through speaking rather than in writing; spoken; uttered; vocal sounds like aura, ch****, c****, laurel, m****

OV

  1. OV4 — having the shape of an egg; elliptical; ovate; ovoid sounds like evil, ogle
  2. OV6

RO

  1. RO4 — to form into a round compact mass; to make a low heavy rolling sound; to make a series of unsteady side-to-side motions; agglomerate; ball sounds like boll, bowl, coal, dole, foal

RU

  1. RU5 — of, relating to, associated with, or typical of open areas with few buildings or people; bucolic; country; pastoral; rustic sounds like neural

UV

  1. UV5sounds like useless, villa
  2. UV6 — as in glottal, velar; glottal; velar; choked; cracked sounds like jeweler, reveler

VA

  1. VA5 — strength of mind to carry on in spite of danger; bottle; bravery; courage; courageousness

VU

  1. VU5sounds like mullah, saliva, valve, velvet, villa
  2. VU6sounds like hovel, shovel, velvet
  3. VU6sounds like allure, valve, veneer

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • fall
  • foal
  • fool
  • foul
  • full
  • furl
  • lava
  • loaf
  • loll
  • luau
  • luff
  • lull
  • lulu
  • oral
  • oval
  • roll

  • afoul
  • alfalfa
  • aloof
  • aural
  • auroral
  • falloff
  • flavor
  • flavorful
  • floor
  • flora
  • floral
  • flour
  • fluff
  • larva
  • larval
  • loofa
  • offal
  • ovular
  • rural
  • uvula
  • uvular
  • valor
  • vulva
  • vulval
  • vulvar

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 54 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.

  • ALAR
  • ALFA
  • ALOO
  • ALULA
  • ALULAR
  • AROLLA
  • ARVAL
  • AULA
  • AVAL
  • FALLAL
  • FARFAL
  • FARL
  • FLAFF
  • FLAVA
  • FLAVOUR
  • FLAVOURFUL
  • FLOR
  • FLORULA
  • FLUOR
  • FLURR
  • FURAL
  • FURFURAL
  • FURFUROL
  • FUROL
  • LALL
  • LAUF
  • LAURA
  • LAVALAVA
  • LAVRA
  • LOOF
  • LOOFFUL
  • LOOR
  • LORAL
  • LOUR
  • LOUVAR
  • LUFFA
  • OLLA
  • OLLAV
  • ORVAL
  • OVOLO
  • ROLF
  • RORAL
  • ROUL
  • ULVA
  • VALLAR
  • VALOUR
  • VALVAL
  • VALVAR
  • VALVULA
  • VALVULAR
  • VOLA
  • VOLAR
  • VOLVA
  • VOULU