NYT Spelling Bee Answers for January 21, 2026

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

The NYT Spelling Bee for Wednesday, January 21, 2026 puts O in the center, with E, A, N, W, C, L around it. There are 88 valid words. It plays like a Medium puzzle.

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

88Words
340Points
238Genius
1Pangram
Medium★★★

NYT Spelling Bee Answers

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

Pangrams

1

4-letter words

40

5-letter words

19

6-letter words

13

7-letter words

10

8-letter words

4

9-letter words

2

Puzzle Breakdown

Center letterO
Vowels3
Rare lettersNone
Words88
Points340
Pangram1
Longest word9
Average length5.1

Rank Calculator

Enter the score you reached on this hive. Genius is 238 points. Queen Bee is 340.

Genius · 102 points to Queen Bee
Beginner0
Good Start7
Moving Up17
Good27
Solid51
Nice85
Great136
Amazing170
238Genius238
Queen Bee340

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

Pangram Breakdown

ALLOWANCE
9 letters 16 points 4 vowels 5 consonants

Repeated letters: A ×2, L ×2

How This Puzzle Compares

Measured against the 396 puzzles in our archive.

Word count 71th percentile
Total points 53th percentile
MetricThis puzzleArchive averageHighestLowest
Words8873.515418
Points340352.989260
Pangrams12.05131

This Puzzle in Context

The January 21, 2026 hive put O in the center with E, A, N, W, C, L around it. Queen Bee needed all 88 words (340 points). Genius sat at 238.

Pangram on this date: ALLOWANCE. Top starting letters: C (40), A (15). Longest accepted word: 9 letters. Difficulty: Medium.

FAQs for January 21, 2026