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Friday, January 2, 2026

Welcome to today’s New York Times Spelling Bee hints and answers. Today’s puzzle features a noticeably smaller, perhaps trickier board than usual with a center letter of “N”. With a total of 23 words to find resulting in 79 total possible points, we are looking at a lower point cap, so every word counts. 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!

Rather see todays puzzle?

Puzzle Stats

Total Words :

23

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

79

Genius Score :

55

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 8 Σ
B 4 2 2 – 8
E 2 1 – – 3
H 1 1 1 2 5
N 6 1 – – 7
Σ 13 5 3 2 23

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

  • BE 1
  • BO 6
  • BU 1
  • EB 2
  • EN 1
  • HO 5
  • NE 2
  • NO 4
  • NU 1

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

BE

  1. BE4 — to have life; to occupy a place or location; to take or have a certain position within a group arranged in vertical classes; breathed; existed sounds like ban, bane, bib, bid, big

BO

  1. BO6 — sounds like bargain, carbon, robin
  2. BO4 — a habitual attraction to some activity or thing; a small cube marked on each side with one to six spots and usually played in pairs in various games; the seat of one’s deepest thoughts and emotions; affection; affinity sounds like ban, bane, bean, beau, been
  3. BO5 — of the very best kind; very pleasing to look at; A-OK; A1; awesome sounds like balmy, bunny
  4. BO6 — sounds like banjo, barb, barbed, barber, barrio
  5. BO4 — having a noticeably small amount of body fat; producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation; fatless; lean; lithe sounds like bunny, phoney, phony, pony, tony
  6. BO4 — likely to seek or enjoy the company of others; clubbable; clubby; companionable; convivial sounds like ban, bane, bean, been, bin

BU

  1. BU5 — sounds like bony, ebony, funny, gunny, honey

EB

  1. EB4 — sounds like auburn, balm, ban, bane, bar
  2. EB5 — having the color of soot or coal; black; pitch-black; pitch-dark; pitchy sounds like bunny

EN

  1. EN4 — sounds like any

HO

  1. HO6 — to come or be together as friends; to take part in social activities; associate; chum; company sounds like blob, cobweb, doorknob, harness, hubbub
  2. HO4 — to make sharp or sharper; to make smooth by friction; edge; grind; sharpen sounds like bone, cone, hen
  3. HO5 — a person with whom one is in love; something very good of its kind; an attractive woman; beloved; darling sounds like bunny, funny, gunny, hubby, hunch
  4. HO8 — sounds like hubby, uneasy
  5. HO8 — sounds like uneven

NE

  1. NE4 — sounds like bean, dean, gene, keen, knead
  2. NE4 — sounds like bean, con, dean, don, eon

NO

  1. NO4 — certainly not; not in any degree, way, or under any condition; hardly; ill; no sounds like bun, done, dun, eon, fun
  2. NO4 — sounds like knew, knob, lube, nab, new
  3. NO4 — the middle of the day; the highest part or point; high noon; lunch time; midday sounds like boon, dune, goon, knew, known
  4. NO4 — as in nominal; nominal; substantive; proper noun; common noun sounds like down, gown, known, nine, nun

NU

  1. NU5 — having small pieces or lumps spread throughout; chunky; clumpy; curdy; lumpy sounds like chubby, hubby

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • been
  • bone
  • bony
  • boon
  • ebon
  • enby
  • hone
  • nene
  • neon
  • none
  • noob
  • noon
  • noun

  • bonbon
  • bonny
  • bonobo
  • bunny
  • ebony
  • hobnob
  • honey
  • honeybee
  • honeybun
  • nubby

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 26 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.

  • BENE
  • BENNE
  • BENNY
  • BONEY
  • BONNE
  • BOUN
  • BUNN
  • ENNUYE
  • ENNUYEE
  • EYEN
  • EYNE
  • HEBEN
  • HEBENON
  • HENNY
  • HOBNOBBY
  • HOON
  • HUNH
  • HYEN
  • NOBBY
  • NONNY
  • NOUNY
  • NUNNY
  • OHONE
  • UNBE
  • UNBEEN
  • UNBONE