NYT Spelling Bee Answers for January 17, 2026

Saturday, January 17, 2026

The NYT Spelling Bee for Saturday, January 17, 2026 puts Y in the center, with R, L, T, P, A, O around it. There are 101 valid words. It plays like a Hard puzzle.

Try the hive yourself first if you want, then use the list below to catch what you missed. Every word includes Y. Tap a word for a short definition.

← Jan 16, 2026

Jan 18, 2026 →

101Words

544Points

381Genius

4Pangrams

Hard★★★★

NYT Spelling Bee Answers

Tap a hive letter to show words that start with it. Tap it again to clear. Every word includes Y.

Pangrams

4-letter words

5-letter words

6-letter words

7-letter words

8-letter words

9-letter words

10-letter words

Puzzle Breakdown

Center letterY

Vowels2

Rare lettersY

Words101

Points544

Pangrams4

Longest word10

Average length5.7

Rank Calculator

Enter the score you reached on this hive. Genius is 381 points. Queen Bee is 544.

Your score Genius · 163 points to Queen Bee

Beginner0

Good Start11

Moving Up27

Good44

Solid82

Nice136

Great218

Amazing272

381Genius381

Queen Bee544

Letter Distribution

How many words start with each letter. Tap a letter to mark those words in the list above.

Points by Word Length

Where the 544 points of this puzzle sit. Tap a row to open that length in the answer list.

Pangram Breakdown

ALLOPATRY

9 letters 16 points 3 vowels 6 consonants

Repeated letters: A ×2, L ×2

ALLOTROPY

9 letters 16 points 3 vowels 6 consonants

Repeated letters: L ×2, O ×2

PORTRAYAL

9 letters 16 points 3 vowels 6 consonants

Repeated letters: R ×2, A ×2

PROTOTYPAL

10 letters 17 points 3 vowels 7 consonants

Repeated letters: P ×2, O ×2, T ×2

How This Puzzle Compares

Measured against the 397 puzzles in our archive.

Word count 84th percentile

Total points 87th percentile

Metric	This puzzle	Archive average	Highest	Lowest
Words	101	73.4	154	18
Points	544	352.9	892	60
Pangrams	4	2.05	13	1

This Puzzle in Context

The January 17, 2026 hive put Y in the center with R, L, T, P, A, O around it. Queen Bee needed all 101 words (544 points). Genius sat at 381.

Pangrams on this date: ALLOPATRY, ALLOTROPY, PORTRAYAL, PROTOTYPAL. Top starting letters: P (41), A (17). Longest accepted word: 10 letters. Difficulty: Hard.