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Monday, January 5, 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 “A”. With a total of 35 words to find resulting in 152 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 :

35

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

152

Genius Score :

106

Pangram

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

7-letter pangram 0 / 7 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
A 3 5 1 1 10
G 3 1 3 7
K 1 1 1 3
N 2 2 2 1 7
O 2 1 3
Y 3 2 5
Σ 14 9 1 8 3 35

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

  • AG 4
  • AK 1
  • AN 5
  • GA 6
  • GO 1
  • KA 2
  • KO 1
  • NA 6
  • NO 1
  • OA 1
  • OK 2
  • YA 4
  • YO 1

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

AG

  1. AG5 — yet another time; in addition to what has been said; just the opposite being true; afresh; anew sounds like abet, adjoin, adjourn, affair, ahead
  2. AG5 — being of advanced years and especially past middle age; aged; ancient; elderly; geriatric sounds like aching, ailing, p*****, r*****
  3. AG4 — having or showing signs of eagerly awaiting something; showing urgent desire or interest; agape; anticipant; anticipatory sounds like afar, ajar, allot, atop, awash
  4. AG5 — a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness; a state of great suffering of body or mind; a sudden intense expression of strong feeling; Gehenna; hell sounds like gunny

AK

  1. AK4 — having a close connection like that between family members; having qualities in common; affiliated; allied; kindred sounds like aching, kin, skin

AN

  1. AN6sounds like vagina
  2. AN5sounds like canyon, onion
  3. AN5 — to disturb the peace of mind of (someone) especially by repeated disagreeable acts; aggravate; bother; bug; burn (up)
  4. AN8 — causing annoyance; abrasive; aggravating; bothersome; carking sounds like adjoining, cloying, cunning, ending, funding
  5. AN4 — at or within a short time; before long; by and by; directly; momentarily sounds like upon

GA

  1. GA4 — showing urgent desire or interest; showing or marked by a lack of good sense or judgment; agog; antsy; anxious sounds like goggle, saga
  2. GA7 — to discharge the contents of the stomach through the mouth; to experience complete or partial blockage of the windpipe; to make jokes; barfing; heaving sounds like lagging, nagging, sagging
  3. GA4 — to gradually increase in; to receive as return for effort; to become healthy and strong again after illness or weakness; build up; gather sounds like arraign, bane, cane, chain, feign
  4. GA7 — as in continuing, advancing; advancing; continuing; afloat; alive sounds like caning
  5. GA4 — a group of people working together on a task; a group of people sharing a common interest and relating together socially; a group involved in secret or criminal activities; army; band sounds like bang, dang, fang
  6. GA7 — as in joining, grouping; affiliating; allying; attaching; banding sounds like changing, glancing, grudging, landing, managing

GO

  1. GO5sounds like donna, mana

KA

  1. KA5 — as in canoe, raft; bateau; caïque; canoe; catamaran sounds like crack, quack
  2. KA8 — as in canoeing; canoeing; oaring; paddling; rowing sounds like aching, biking, breaking, caning, casing

KO

  1. KO4sounds like bone, can, cane, clone, clones

NA

  1. NA4sounds like con, don, john, knob, knock
  2. NA7 — causing worry or anxiety; discomforting; discomposing; disquieting; distressing sounds like lagging, sagging
  3. NA5sounds like baggy, shaggy
  4. NA4sounds like manna
  5. NA5 — a girl or woman employed to care for a young child or children; babysitter; dry nurse; nurse; nursemaid sounds like canny, fanny
  6. NA8sounds like carrying, landing, panting, rallying, tanning

NO

  1. NO7sounds like bargain, collagen, dragon, handgun, jargon

OA

  1. OA4sounds like hokey, key, ochre, okay, pokey

OK

  1. OK4 — being to one’s liking; of a level of quality that meets one’s needs or standards; agreeable; all right; alright sounds like oak, obey, ochre
  2. OK7 — to give official acceptance of as satisfactory; to have a favorable opinion of; accrediting; approbating; approving sounds like aching, acting, caning, casing, choking

YA

  1. YA7 — as in bleating, blabbering; blabbering; blathering; bleating; blithering sounds like hacking, lacking
  2. YA4sounds like bang, dang, fang, gang, hang
  3. YA4 — the act or an instance of applying force on something so that it moves in the direction of the force; draw; haul; jerk; pluck sounds like bank, dank, hank, rank, sank
  4. YA7 — to move or cause to move with a sharp quick motion; to draw out by force or with effort; to separate or remove by forceful pulling; bucking; hitching sounds like ranking

YO

  1. YO4sounds like toga

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • agog
  • akin
  • anon
  • gaga
  • gain
  • gang
  • koan
  • naan
  • nana
  • oaky
  • okay
  • yang
  • yank
  • yoga

  • again
  • aging
  • agony
  • angina
  • anion
  • annoy
  • annoying
  • gagging
  • gaining
  • ganging
  • gonna
  • kayak
  • kayaking
  • nagging
  • naggy
  • nanny
  • nannying
  • nonagon
  • okaying
  • yakking
  • yanking

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 77 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.

  • AGIN
  • AGIO
  • AGOING
  • AGON
  • AIGA
  • AIKONA
  • AINGA
  • AKING
  • ANAGOGY
  • ANAN
  • ANANA
  • ANGA
  • ANGAKOK
  • ANNA
  • ANNO
  • ANNONA
  • ANOA
  • ANYON
  • AYIN
  • GAGING
  • GANNING
  • GANOIN
  • GIGA
  • GOANNA
  • GOGGA
  • GONIA
  • IKAN
  • INANGA
  • INGAN
  • INIA
  • KAGO
  • KAIAK
  • KAIAKING
  • KAIK
  • KAIKA
  • KAIKAI
  • KAIN
  • KAING
  • KAINGA
  • KAKA
  • KAKI
  • KANA
  • KANAKA
  • KANG
  • KANGA
  • KAON
  • KAYO
  • KAYOING
  • KIANG
  • KINA
  • KINAKINA
  • KNAG
  • KNAGGY
  • KOKA
  • KOKAKO
  • KONAKI
  • KYAK
  • KYANG
  • NAGA
  • NAGANA
  • NAIK
  • NAIN
  • NANG
  • NANKIN
  • NANNA
  • NANNYGAI
  • NANOOK
  • NAOI
  • NGAI
  • NGAIO
  • NGANA
  • NONA
  • NONGAY
  • ONGAONGA
  • OOGONIA
  • YAGI
  • YAKKA