NYT Spelling Bee Answers for January 3, 2026

Saturday, January 3, 2026

The NYT Spelling Bee for Saturday, January 3, 2026 puts C in the center, with N, O, I, L, R, U around it. There are 77 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 C. Tap a word for a short definition.

77Words
378Points
265Genius
3Pangrams
Medium★★★

NYT Spelling Bee Answers

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

Pangrams

3

4-letter words

22

5-letter words

22

6-letter words

17

7-letter words

9

8-letter words

4

9-letter words

2

10-letter words

1

Puzzle Breakdown

Center letterC
Vowels3
Rare lettersNone
Words77
Points378
Pangrams3
Longest word10
Average length5.5

Rank Calculator

Enter the score you reached on this hive. Genius is 265 points. Queen Bee is 378.

Genius · 113 points to Queen Bee
Beginner0
Good Start8
Moving Up19
Good30
Solid57
Nice95
Great151
Amazing189
265Genius265
Queen Bee378

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

Pangram Breakdown

COUNCILLOR
10 letters 17 points 4 vowels 6 consonants

Repeated letters: C ×2, O ×2, L ×2

COUNCILOR
9 letters 16 points 4 vowels 5 consonants

Repeated letters: C ×2, O ×2

UNICOLOR
8 letters 15 points 4 vowels 4 consonants

Repeated letters: O ×2

How This Puzzle Compares

Measured against the 397 puzzles in our archive.

Word count 58th percentile
Total points 62th percentile
MetricThis puzzleArchive averageHighestLowest
Words7773.415418
Points378352.989260
Pangrams32.05131

This Puzzle in Context

The January 3, 2026 hive put C in the center with N, O, I, L, R, U around it. Queen Bee needed all 77 words (378 points). Genius sat at 265.

Pangrams on this date: COUNCILLOR, COUNCILOR, UNICOLOR. Top starting letters: C (47), U (9). Longest accepted word: 10 letters. Difficulty: Medium.

FAQs for January 3, 2026