G
H
O
L
U
R
N

Friday, January 30, 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 “L”. With a total of 20 words to find resulting in 66 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 :

20

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

66

Genius Score :

46

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
G 2 1 1 – – 4
H 2 – – – 1 3
L 7 – – 1 1 9
N 1 – – – – 1
O – – 1 – – 1
R 1 – – – – 1
U – – 1 – – 1
Σ 13 1 3 1 2 20

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

  • GH 1
  • GL 1
  • GO 1
  • GU 1
  • HO 1
  • HU 2
  • LO 6
  • LU 3
  • NU 1
  • OO 1
  • RO 1
  • UN 1

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

GH

  1. GH5 — an evil spirit; cacodemon; demon; devil; fiend sounds like cool, fool, gal, gale, gall

GL

  1. GL4 — sounds like lug, plug, slug

GO

  1. GO6 — sounds like gaggle, giggle, gurgle

GU

  1. GU4 — one who is easily deceived or cheated; chump; dupe; mug; patsy sounds like cul, cull, dull, eagle, gal

HO

  1. HO8 — sounds like along, belong, daylong, long, oblong

HU

  1. HU4 — something that encloses another thing especially to protect it; armor; capsule; case; casing sounds like cul, cull, dull, gull, hail
  2. HU4 — to discharge the contents of the stomach through the mouth; to proceed or move quickly; to send through the air especially with a quick forward motion of the arm; barf; gag sounds like burl, curl, earl, girl, hail

LO

  1. LO4 — a device, design, or figure used as an identifying mark; emblem; ensign; hallmark; impresa
  2. LO7 — sounds like patrol
  3. 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
  4. LO4 — of great extent from end to end; lasting for a considerable time; elongate; extended; king-size sounds like a****, laud, law, lawn, lung
  5. LO8 — sounds like bullhorn, horn, shoehorn
  6. LO4 — a person of odd or whimsical habits; a stupid person; character; codger; crack sounds like boon, dune, goon, lain, lane

LU

  1. LU4 — a momentary halt in an activity; break; breath; breather; interruption sounds like cul, cull, dull, gull, hull
  2. LU4 — something very good of its kind; beaut; beauty; bee’s knees; cat’s meow sounds like blew, blue, clue, cool, cooled
  3. LU4 — sounds like c****, dung, f****, hung, long

NU

  1. NU4 — having no legal or binding force; having no usefulness; bad; inoperative; invalid sounds like annul, cul, cull, dull, gull

OO

  1. OO6 — sounds like along, long

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

UN

  1. UN6 — as in unwind, uncoil; uncoil; unwind; straighten; unbend sounds like enroll

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • glug
  • gull
  • hull
  • hurl
  • logo
  • loll
  • long
  • loon
  • lull
  • lulu
  • lung
  • null
  • roll

  • ghoul
  • googol
  • hourlong
  • logroll
  • longhorn
  • oolong
  • unroll

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 27 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.

  • GLOGG
  • GLUON
  • GOOL
  • GRRL
  • GRRRL
  • GURL
  • HOLLO
  • HOLLOO
  • HOLON
  • HULLO
  • HULLOO
  • LOGLOG
  • LOGON
  • LOLOG
  • LOOR
  • LORGNON
  • LORN
  • LOUGH
  • LOUN
  • LOUR
  • NOLL
  • NOLO
  • NOUL
  • NURL
  • ORLON
  • OULONG
  • ROUL