NYT Spelling Bee Answers for May 16, 2026

Saturday, May 16, 2026

The NYT Spelling Bee for Saturday, May 16, 2026 puts A in the center, with N, O, P, E, H, T around it. There are 118 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 A. Tap a word for a short definition.

← May 15, 2026

May 17, 2026 →

118Words

533Points

373Genius

4Pangrams

Medium★★★

NYT Spelling Bee Answers

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

Pangrams

4-letter words

5-letter words

6-letter words

7-letter words

8-letter words

9-letter words

10-letter words

12-letter words

Puzzle Breakdown

Center letterA

Vowels3

Rare lettersNone

Words118

Points533

Pangrams4

Longest word12

Average length5.4

Rank Calculator

Enter the score you reached on this hive. Genius is 373 points. Queen Bee is 533.

Your score Genius · 160 points to Queen Bee

Beginner0

Good Start11

Moving Up27

Good43

Solid80

Nice133

Great213

Amazing267

373Genius373

Queen Bee533

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

Pangram Breakdown

PANTHEON

8 letters 15 points 3 vowels 5 consonants

Repeated letters: N ×2

PANTOTHENATE

12 letters 19 points 5 vowels 7 consonants

Repeated letters: A ×2, N ×2, T ×3, E ×2

PHAETON

7 letters 14 points 3 vowels 4 consonants

PHONATE

7 letters 14 points 3 vowels 4 consonants

How This Puzzle Compares

Measured against the 390 puzzles in our archive.

Word count 93th percentile

Total points 87th percentile

Metric	This puzzle	Archive average	Highest	Lowest
Words	118	73.8	154	18
Points	533	354.7	892	60
Pangrams	4	2.06	13	1

This Puzzle in Context

The May 16, 2026 hive put A in the center with N, O, P, E, H, T around it. Queen Bee needed all 118 words (533 points). Genius sat at 373.

Pangrams on this date: PANTHEON, PANTOTHENATE, PHAETON, PHONATE. Top starting letters: P (34), A (22). Longest accepted word: 12 letters. Difficulty: Medium.