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C
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Tuesday, February 3, 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 “R”. With a total of 48 words to find resulting in 222 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 :

48

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

222

Genius Score :

155

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 9 10 Σ
A 2 3 2 2 9
C 3 3 2 1 1 10
D 4 1 1 1 7
M 2 2 4
R 1 3 1 1 6
T 3 4 3 1 1 12
Σ 15 14 10 5 2 1 1 48

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 1
  • AR 5
  • AT 3
  • CA 5
  • CI 3
  • CR 2
  • DA 1
  • DI 2
  • DR 4
  • MA 3
  • MI 1
  • RA 6
  • TA 5
  • TI 1
  • TR 6

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

AC

  1. AC5 — having or showing deep-seated resentment; marked by the use of wit that is intended to cause hurt feelings; acrimonious; bitter; embittered sounds like arid

AR

  1. AR7 — as in Eden, Camelot; Camelot; Cockaigne; Eden; Elysium
  2. AR6 — having a low or subnormal temperature; lacking in friendliness or warmth of feeling; algid; bitter; bone-chilling
  3. AR4 — a melody in an opera sung by one person; art song; barcarole; blues; chanson
  4. AR4 — causing weariness, restlessness, or lack of interest; marked by little or no precipitation or humidity; boring; colorless; drab sounds like acid, added, avid
  5. AR6 — a group of vehicles traveling together or under one management; caravan; cavalcade; fleet; line

AT

  1. AT5 — as in peristyles, gallerias; gallerias; parvises; peristyles; closes sounds like area, aria, outreach, streak, stream
  2. AT5 — a sweet or pleasant smell; aroma; balm; bouquet; fragrance sounds like butter, cutter, eater, gutter, mutter
  3. AT7 — to engage the attention of; draw; entice; interest; allure sounds like tracked, tract

CA

  1. CA5sounds like beret, ferret, merit, parrot
  2. CA4 — a list of foods served at or available for a meal; a person (as a writer) noted for or specializing in humor; menu; comedian; comic sounds like bard, charred, chord, cod, conned
  3. CA7sounds like crack, creak, creek, guardian, hardier
  4. CA4 — a wheeled usually horse-drawn vehicle used for hauling; wagon; wain sounds like art, chart, cost, cot, court
  5. CA8 — a fall of water usually from a great height; a great flow of water or of something that overwhelms; cascade; fall(s); waterfall sounds like counteract, interact

CI

  1. CI5 — not far from (something) in time; alongside; beside; about; around
  2. CI5sounds like airy, brie, eerie, free, sari
  3. CI6sounds like cynic, cystic, lyric, metric, satiric

CR

  1. CR4 — a great number of persons or things massed together; army; bike; crowd; crush sounds like chrome, clam
  2. CR6 — a person given to harsh judgments and to finding faults; a person who makes or expresses a judgment on the quality of offerings in some field of endeavor; carper; castigator; caviler

DA

  1. DA4 — an act or expression showing scorn and usually intended to hurt another’s feelings; affront; barb; brickbat; cut sounds like art, cart, chart, dot, heart

DI

  1. DI9 — as in different, other; different; disparate; dissimilar; distinct sounds like acrylic, autocratic, critic, democratic
  2. DI4 — the loose surface material in which plants naturally grow; the solid part of our planet’s surface as distinguished from the sea and air; foul matter that mars the purity or cleanliness of something; clod; earth sounds like curt, date, dearth, debt, dot

DR

  1. DR4 — a very small amount; ace; bit; crumb; dab sounds like cram, dam, damn, gram, ram
  2. DR5 — the public performance of plays; a written work in which the story is told through speech and action that is intended to be acted out on stage; dramatics; stage; theater sounds like comma, dogma, donna
  3. DR8 — having the general quality or effect of a stage performance; given to or marked by attention-getting behavior suggestive of stage acting; likely to attract attention; histrionic; melodramatic sounds like aromatic
  4. DR4sounds like brat, rat

MA

  1. MA6
  2. MA4sounds like arm, charm, farm, harm
  3. MA4 — as in department store, mini-mart; boutique; chain store; department store; dime store sounds like art, cart, chart, dart, heart

MI

  1. MI6 — as in sky, horizon; blue; firmament; heaven(s); high sounds like beware, dare, mare, mere, repair

RA

  1. RA5
  2. RA5 — as in diameters; diameters; equators; perimeters; peripheries sounds like audio, bodied, body, oddly, readied
  3. RA4 — a sudden attack on and entrance into hostile territory; the act or action of setting upon with force or violence; descent; foray; incursion sounds like aid, aide, bade, b****, fade
  4. RA5sounds like beta
  5. RA6sounds like remodel
  6. RA7sounds like habitat

TA

  1. TA6sounds like tomorrow
  2. TA6sounds like track
  3. TA10sounds like armament, armistice, article, barnacle, dogmatism
  4. TA4 — causing or characterized by the one of the basic taste sensations that is produced chiefly by acids; marked by the use of wit that is intended to cause hurt feelings; acid; acidic; acidulous sounds like art, cart, chart, dart, heart
  5. TA6sounds like barter, charter, garter, martyr, starter

TI

  1. TI5 — as in anadem; anadem; chaplet; coronal; coronet sounds like rearm, tar, tarred, tart, zebra

TR

  1. TR5 — a broad geographical area; a small area of usually open land; a small piece of land that is developed or available for development; belt; corridor sounds like at*****, cracked, tact
  2. TR5 — something that sets apart an individual from others of the same kind; affection; attribute; attribution; character sounds like crate, freight, grate, great, irate
  3. TR4 — as in truck, wheelbarrow; barrow; hand truck; pushcart; truck sounds like cram, dram, gram, ram, tam
  4. TR7
  5. TR5 — a group of three; threesome; trifecta; trinity; trio
  6. TR4 — being clean and in good order; antiseptic; bandbox; crisp; groomed sounds like brim, grim, prim, rim

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • aria
  • arid
  • card
  • cart
  • cram
  • dart
  • dirt
  • dram
  • drat
  • marm
  • mart
  • raid
  • tart
  • tram
  • trim

  • acrid
  • arcadia
  • arctic
  • armada
  • atria
  • attar
  • attract
  • carat
  • cardiac
  • cataract
  • circa
  • cirri
  • citric
  • critic
  • diacritic
  • drama
  • dramatic
  • maraca
  • midair
  • radar
  • radii
  • raita
  • ramada
  • ratatat
  • tamari
  • tarmac
  • tarmacadam
  • tartar
  • tiara
  • tract
  • trait
  • tramcar
  • triad

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 102 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.

  • AARTI
  • ACARI
  • ACARID
  • ACRATIC
  • ADRAD
  • AIRT
  • AMIR
  • AMRIT
  • AMRITA
  • AMTRAC
  • ARAARA
  • ARAMID
  • ARAR
  • ARCTIID
  • ARDRI
  • ARTI
  • ARTIC
  • ATARACTIC
  • ATTRIT
  • CAIRD
  • CARACARA
  • CARACT
  • CARDI
  • CARDIA
  • CARDITIC
  • CARIAMA
  • CARR
  • CARRACT
  • CARRAT
  • CARTA
  • CIMAR
  • CIRCAR
  • CRAIC
  • CRIA
  • CRIM
  • CRIT
  • DAMAR
  • DAMMAR
  • DARI
  • DARIC
  • DATACARD
  • DATARIA
  • DIRAM
  • DIRDAM
  • DRAC
  • DRAD
  • IATRIC
  • IMARI
  • IRID
  • IRIDIC
  • IRITIC
  • MAAR
  • MACRAMI
  • MAIR
  • MARA
  • MARARI
  • MARC
  • MARD
  • MARIA
  • MARID
  • MARRAM
  • MARRI
  • MATRIC
  • MICRA
  • MIRACIDIA
  • MIRI
  • MIRITI
  • RACA
  • RADIATA
  • RAIA
  • RAIRD
  • RAIT
  • RAMCAT
  • RAMI
  • RATA
  • RIAD
  • RIATA
  • RICRAC
  • RIMA
  • RITARD
  • RITT
  • TAIRA
  • TAMARA
  • TAMMAR
  • TARA
  • TARAMA
  • TARTARIC
  • TATAR
  • TIAR
  • TIRITI
  • TIRR
  • TIRRIT
  • TRAD
  • TRAT
  • TRATT
  • TRIAC
  • TRIACID
  • TRIACT
  • TRIADIC
  • TRIATIC
  • TRICAR
  • TRICTRAC