The short version
Make words of four letters or more from the seven letters in the hive. Every word must use the center letter; letters can be used more than once. Four-letter words score 1 point, longer words a point per letter, and a pangram, a word with all seven letters, scores 7 more. In the 34 puzzles from October 5 to November 7, 2026, the average puzzle had 49 answers worth 230 points.
Stuck today? Today's Spelling Bee answers start with hints and keep the answers behind a tap.
The rules
The NYT Spelling Bee gives you seven letters in a honeycomb: one in the middle and six around it. You make as many words as you can from them.
- Words have at least four letters.
- Every word uses the center letter.
- Letters can repeat: with O and L in the hive, LOLL and COOL both count.
- No proper nouns, no hyphenated words, and none of the words the editors leave out as too obscure or offensive. The answer list is chosen by hand, so it is shorter than a Scrabble dictionary.
Points and ranks
A four-letter word is worth 1 point. Every longer word scores one point per letter, so CLOUT scores 5. A pangram uses all seven letters at least once and earns 7 points on top; a perfect pangram uses each letter exactly once, so it is seven letters long.
Your rank climbs as your points add up: Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing and Genius, at 0, 2, 5, 8, 15, 25, 40, 50 and 70% of the puzzle's points. Finding every word makes you Queen Bee. Since puzzles range from 79 to 355 points, Genius takes anywhere from 55 to 248 points.
What the last 34 puzzles looked like
| 34 puzzles, October 5 to November 7, 2026 | Number |
|---|---|
| Answers in a puzzle, on average | 49 (18 to 77) |
| Points in a puzzle, on average | 230 (79 to 355) |
| Answers with four letters | 33% |
| Puzzles with two or more pangrams | 12 of 34 |
| Puzzles with a perfect pangram | 13 of 34 |
| Puzzles with the letter S | 0 of 34 |
8 tips that work
1. Never look for plurals
There is no S in the Spelling Bee: none of the 34 puzzles had one, so plurals made with S never count. Don't spend time on them, and look for other endings instead.
2. Collect the four-letter words first
About 33% of all answers had only four letters, like AIDE, AMID, AVID on November 7, 2026. They are worth 1 point each, but they add up fast and many of them become longer words once you add an ending.
3. When I, N and G are in the hive, think -ING
Only 6 of the 34 puzzles had all three letters, but those puzzles gave 121 answers ending in -ING, about 20 a puzzle, such as EYEING, EYING, LYING. Take every short word you found and try it with -ING.
4. Try the other common endings
Endings like -ED, -ER, -LY, -ION and -ILL turn up again and again when their letters are there. Go through the hive and ask, for each ending, which of your words can take it.
5. Hunt for the pangram with long endings
Pangrams are often a short root with a long ending or beginning. Put the rarest letters together first, then add the common ones around them. 12 of the 34 puzzles had more than one pangram, so keep looking after the first. Two recent ones: LOCUTION and MEDIEVAL.
6. Double the letters
Letters can repeat, and the Bee loves words that repeat them: MANNA, NAAN, NANA each came up in 4 different puzzles. Try doubling every letter in the hive.
7. Use the hint grid
The hint grid on today's answers page shows how many words start with each letter and how long they are, and the two-letter list shows how many start with each pair, without giving any word away.
8. Know the letters that come up most
I was in 23, A was in 21, L was in 19 of the 34 puzzles. Vowels and easy consonants keep the hive solvable; rare letters like J and X appear only now and then and usually make the pangram harder.
After the puzzle
Yesterday's Spelling Bee answers show every word you missed, with its points, and the archive on today's page keeps every earlier day. The longest answers in these 34 puzzles were INTELLIGENTLY and HIGHLIGHTING.
Want to see every word your own letters make, not only the Bee's? The word unscrambler lists them all, and how to unscramble words has more tricks that work in the Bee too.
How we counted
The 34 NYT Spelling Bee puzzles from October 5 to November 7, 2026 as the game published them: the letters, the answers and the pangrams. Points follow the game's rules above. This guide is ours; the Spelling Bee is a New York Times game, and we are not connected with the NYT.
More guides
- Anagram Hall of Fame: The Longest Anagrams and Other RecordsEARTH is searched for in 89 countries, CONVERSATION hides CONSERVATION, and seven tiles make 365 Scrabble words.
- How to Unscramble Words: 9 Techniques That WorkPull out the ending, pair up letters, find the small word inside: nine tricks, each shown on a real scramble.
- How to Solve Phrase Anagrams and Crossword Anagram CluesWhy BEER HAT, THE BEAR and HERB TEA all spell the same word, and a method that solves any phrase.
- Is It a Word? How Scrabble, Words With Friends and Word Apps DecideMost words people ask us about are scrambles of real ones. Which list your game uses, and why the lists disagree.