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Monday, March 16, 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 “N”. With a total of 38 words to find resulting in 225 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 :

38

Total Pangrams :

1

Total Points:

225

Genius Score :

158

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 8 9 10 Σ
C – 1 1 1 1 – – 4
E – – 2 1 – 1 1 5
G 2 2 – 4 1 – – 9
I – 2 1 1 – 1 – 5
L 2 1 1 1 1 – – 6
N 3 1 2 – 2 – 1 9
Σ 7 7 7 8 5 2 2 38

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

  • CE 1
  • CL 3
  • EG 1
  • EN 1
  • EX 3
  • GE 4
  • GI 4
  • GL 1
  • IC 1
  • IN 4
  • LE 2
  • LI 4
  • NE 3
  • NI 6

Dictionary Clues for Todays List.

CE

  1. CE7 — a real or imaginary point beyond which a person or thing cannot go; a raised covering over something for decoration or protection; bound; boundary; cap sounds like feeling, healing, seating, seedling, seeming

CL

  1. CL5 — a physical sticking to as if by glue; adherence; adhesion; bonding sounds like ailing, fling, killing
  2. CL8 — to hold to something firmly as if by adhesion; adhering; cleaving; hewing; sticking
  3. CL6 — a place for the treatment of those who are ill or injured; an intensive educational or training program; hospital; infirmary; medical center sounds like chronic

EG

  1. EG6 — as in whipping, prompting; exhorting; flogging; goading; hounding sounds like etching

EN

  1. EN6 — a device that changes energy into mechanical motion; machine; motor

EX

  1. EX10 — exceptionally high quality; a quality that gives something special worth; choiceness; distinction; excellency
  2. EX9 — to be greater, better, or stronger than; beating; bettering; eclipsing; exceeding sounds like selling
  3. EX7 — to force to leave a country; banishing; deporting; displacing; expatriating

GE

  1. GE7 — to turn from a liquid into a substance resembling jelly; clotting; coagulating; congealing; gelating sounds like galling, selling
  2. GE4 — sounds like bean, dean, gin, jeans, jeep
  3. GE5 — a magic spirit that looks like a person, often lives in a lamp or bottle, and serves the person who calls it; afreet; jinni; cacodemon; demon sounds like jeans, journey
  4. GE5 — a magic spirit that looks like a person, often lives in a lamp or bottle, and serves the person who calls it; afreets; jinn; cacodemons; demons sounds like any, enemy, ennui, envy, fennel

GI

  1. GI7 — as in driving, riding; busing; cabbing; coaching; cruising sounds like rigging
  2. GI8 — as in smiling, amused; amused; beaming; chuckling; smiling sounds like beguiling, guzzling, middling, piddling, sizzling
  3. GI7 — sounds like billing, chilling, galling, killing, schilling
  4. GI7 — sounds like inning, sinning, winning

GL

  1. GL4 — a narrow valley; combe; dale; dell; hollow

IC

  1. IC5 — as in fringe benefit; fringe benefit; award; prize; reward sounds like sing

IN

  1. IN7 — the degree to which something rises up from a position level with the horizon; cant; diagonal; grade; gradient
  2. IN9 — bending downward or forward; bowed; bowing; declined; declining sounds like declining, reclining
  3. IN5 — sounds like any, eerie, guinea, iffy, itchy
  4. IN6 — sounds like earring, g******, s******, w******

LE

  1. LE7 — as in hose, sweatpants; hose; sweatpants; baggies; bell-bottoms sounds like lagging, logging
  2. LE8 — kind, gentle, or compassionate treatment especially towards someone who is undeserving of it; charity; clemency; forbearance; leniency

LI

  1. LI4 — sounds like bean, clean, dean, gene, glean
  2. LI4 — a series of persons or things arranged one behind another; a way of acting or proceeding; the activity by which one regularly makes a living; column; cue sounds like align, dine, fine, lain, lane
  3. LI5 — as in dirty laundry; dirty laundry; dirt; gossip; scuttlebutt
  4. LI6 — as in quilting, interlining; interlining; quilting; packing; buffer sounds like dining, fining, shining

NE

  1. NE8 — as in lingerie, nightie; lingerie; nightie; nightcap; pajamas sounds like effigy
  2. NE10 — failure to take the care that a cautious person usually takes; the nonperformance of an assigned or expected action; carelessness; dereliction; heedlessness
  3. NE4 — sounds like bean, dean, gene, keen, knead

NI

  1. NI4 — giving pleasure or contentment to the mind or senses; following the established traditions of refined society and good taste; hard to please; agreeable; blessed sounds like dice, ice, knife, knight, lice
  2. NI5 — sounds like cease, knead, knee, kneel, lease
  3. NI6 — to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant; carp; cavil; fuss; nitpick sounds like giggle, jiggle, wiggle
  4. NI8 — so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention; chicken; de minimis; footling; inconsequential sounds like beguiling, middling, piddling, sizzling
  5. NI4 — as in last word, hot ticket; buzz; chic; craze; dernier cri sounds like been, bin, chin, din, fin
  6. NI6 — to be unwilling to grant; to reject by or as if by a vote; to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to; declining; denying sounds like biking, boxing, coaxing, icing, taxing

The Complete Word List (Spoiler Alert!)

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

  • gene
  • glen
  • lien
  • line
  • nene
  • nice
  • nine

  • ceiling
  • cling
  • clinging
  • clinic
  • egging
  • engine
  • excellence
  • excelling
  • exiling
  • gelling
  • genie
  • genii
  • gigging
  • giggling
  • gilling
  • ginning
  • icing
  • incline
  • inclining
  • innie
  • inning
  • legging
  • lenience
  • linen
  • lining
  • negligee
  • negligence
  • niece
  • niggle
  • niggling
  • nixing

Valid dictionary words not in today’s official answers

Today’s puzzle have total of 61 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.

  • CELLING
  • CIELING
  • CINE
  • CLINE
  • EGENCE
  • EIGNE
  • EINE
  • ENGINING
  • EXIGENCE
  • EXINE
  • EXING
  • GEEING
  • GENIC
  • GENNEL
  • GENNING
  • GIEING
  • GIEN
  • GING
  • GINGE
  • GINGELI
  • GINGELLI
  • GINGILI
  • GINGILLI
  • GINGLE
  • GINN
  • GINNEL
  • GLEEING
  • GLEENIE
  • IGGING
  • INCLE
  • INGINE
  • INGLE
  • LEEING
  • LEGGIN
  • LEGLEN
  • LEGLIN
  • LENG
  • LENGING
  • LICENCE
  • LICENCEE
  • LICENCING
  • LIGGING
  • LIGNE
  • LIGNIN
  • LILLING
  • LING
  • LINGEL
  • LINGLE
  • LININ
  • LINN
  • LINNING
  • NEELE
  • NEGLIGE
  • NEINEI
  • NELLIE
  • NIELLI
  • NILL
  • NILLING
  • NIXE
  • NIXIE
  • XENIC