Answers for September 17, 2026

Complete verified solutions for the September 17, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee puzzle. All 36 words, pangrams, and point totals included below.

Last updated: September 17, 2026 at 3:00 AM EST

B

Quick Answer Summary

The puzzle on 2026-09-17 had 36 words worth 124 points total. Pangram(s) included foamily. You needed 87 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
194 Easy
18th percentile
Total Words
36
32th percentile
Total Points
124
19th percentile
Avg Word Length
4.83
All-time avg: 5.3
🎯
87
Genius Threshold
70% of max points
πŸ‘‘
124
Queen Bee Score
100% β€” all words
πŸ…±οΈ
No
Bingo Status
Not all letters start
πŸ“ˆ
22
GN4L Value
Words after Genius
2️⃣
13
Unique 2L Starts
Two-letter openings
⏱️
41m
Est. Solve Time
To reach Genius

πŸ“Š Words by Length

19 words
4L 19
10 words
5L 10
3 words
6L 3
2 words (Pangram)
7L 2⭐
2 words
8L 2

πŸ…±οΈ Words Starting with Each Letter

M🐝
18
F
8
L
7
A
2
I
1
O
0
Y
0
Metric Today Average Record High Record Low
Total Words 36 ~44.54 79 16
Total Points 124 ~206.68 406 60
Avg Word Length 4.83 ~5.42 6.689655172413793 4.578947368421052
Pangram Count 1 ~1.5 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 FOAMILY. It consists of 7 letters with a vowel-to-consonant ratio of 43% (3 vowels and 4 consonants).

  • ⚑ Structure: Perfect pangram (uses each letter exactly once)
Understanding spelling bee pangram patterns helps players identify long, high-scoring words early in their daily solving run.

πŸ“š Etymology & Word Origins

Greek FOAMILY

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Greek vocabulary, evolving through classical Hellenic phonetic clusters and structural roots.

Latinate FAMILIAL

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

Latinate FLIMFLAM

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:

afoam alamo alima alma aloma amal amala amay amia amil amimia amla amli amma ammi
NYT Spelling Bee rules exclude proper nouns, hyphenated terms, offensive words, and highly obscure vocabulary at the editor's discretion.

Pangram

foamily (14 pts)
Click to Reveal Pangram

4-Letter Words19 words

ammo
amyl
film
foam
imam
lama
lima
limo
loam
loom
mail
maim
Click to Reveal 19 4-Letter Words

5-Letter Words10 words

filmy
foamy
llama
loamy
mafia
mamma
molly
momma
mommy
moola
Click to Reveal 10 5-Letter Words

6-Letter Words3 words

family
mammal
mayfly
Click to Reveal 3 6-Letter Words

7-Letter Words2 words

foamily
mollify
Click to Reveal 2 7-Letter Words

8-Letter Words2 words

familial
flimflam
Click to Reveal 2 8-Letter Words

About Today's Spelling Bee Puzzle

Today's NYT Spelling Bee features M as the center letter, with 36 words worth 124 points total. The pangram is "foamily" β€” a 7-letter word that uses all seven hive letters.

You need 87 points to reach Genius rank. Want to solve it yourself first? Our hints page gives you two-letter lists without revealing the full answers.

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