Answers for August 21, 2026

Complete verified solutions for the August 21, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee puzzle. All 23 words, pangrams, and point totals included below.

Last updated: August 21, 2026 at 3:00 AM EST

B

Quick Answer Summary

The puzzle on 2026-08-21 had 23 words worth 95 points total. Pangram(s) included groundhog. You needed 67 points (70%) to reach Genius rank.

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πŸ“Š Today's Puzzle Insights

How today's puzzle compares to all-time Spelling Bee history

πŸ“ˆ View All-Time Stats Hub
Difficulty Score
181 Easy
8th percentile
Total Words
23
5th percentile
Total Points
95
3th percentile
Avg Word Length
5.13
All-time avg: 5.3
🎯
67
Genius Threshold
70% of max points
πŸ‘‘
95
Queen Bee Score
100% β€” all words
πŸ…±οΈ
No
Bingo Status
Not all letters start
πŸ“ˆ
13
GN4L Value
Words after Genius
2️⃣
14
Unique 2L Starts
Two-letter openings
⏱️
31m
Est. Solve Time
To reach Genius

πŸ“Š Words by Length

10 words
4L 10
6 words
5L 6
4 words
6L 4
1 word
7L 1
1 word
8L 1
1 word (Pangram)
9L 1⭐

πŸ…±οΈ Words Starting with Each Letter

D
6
U🐝
5
G
4
H
3
R
3
N
2
O
0
Metric Today Average Record High Record Low
Total Words 23 ~44 77 16
Total Points 95 ~204.67 406 60
Avg Word Length 5.13 ~5.43 6.689655172413793 4.578947368421052
Pangram Count 1 ~1.49 4 1

πŸ“… Previous Puzzles with This Pangram

This is the first time this pangram has appeared in our archives.

🧩 Pangram Pattern Analysis

Today's featured pangram is GROUNDHOG. It consists of 9 letters with a vowel-to-consonant ratio of 33% (3 vowels and 6 consonants).

  • ⚑ Structure: Standard pangram (features letter repetition)
  • ⚑ Repeated letters: G (x2), O (x2)
Understanding spelling bee pangram patterns helps players identify long, high-scoring words early in their daily solving run.

πŸ“š Etymology & Word Origins

Latinate GROUNDHOG

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Latinate NUNHOOD

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Latinate UNGROUND

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Linguistic history study helps in spotting letter clusters in the spelling bee glossary based on classical word origins.

🚫 Rejected Word List

These valid English words can be formed with today's letters but were not accepted by the NYT editor:

doug drou droud drung dugdug duhr dungon durn duro durr goundou gour grough grugru grun
NYT Spelling Bee rules exclude proper nouns, hyphenated terms, offensive words, and highly obscure vocabulary at the editor's discretion.

Pangram

groundhog (16 pts)
Click to Reveal Pangram

4-Letter Words10 words

dour
drug
dung
guru
hour
hung
noun
rung
udon
undo
Click to Reveal 10 4-Letter Words

5-Letter Words6 words

dough
dunno
gourd
hound
rough
round
Click to Reveal 6 5-Letter Words

6-Letter Words4 words

dugong
ground
unhood
unhung
Click to Reveal 4 6-Letter Words

7-Letter Words1 words

nunhood
Click to Reveal 1 7-Letter Words

8-Letter Words1 words

unground
Click to Reveal 1 8-Letter Words

9-Letter Words1 words

groundhog
Click to Reveal 1 9-Letter Words

About Today's Spelling Bee Puzzle

Today's NYT Spelling Bee features U as the center letter, with 23 words worth 95 points total. The pangram is "groundhog" β€” a 9-letter word that uses all seven hive letters.

You need 67 points to reach Genius rank. Want to solve it yourself first? Our hints page gives you two-letter lists without revealing the full answers.

New to Spelling Bee? Check out our complete rules guide or beginner's guide to learn the basics.

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🧩 NYT Puzzle Hub

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