Spelling Bee Hints & Answers Today, November 12, 2026

Thursday’s Spelling Bee from The New York Times (NYT), Nov. 12, 2026, keeps T in the middle and rings it with C, D, E, H, O and U. It has 54 words and 233 points, with one pangram. Hints, a clue and some counts come first, and the word list is held in the final section.

Today Genius is 163 points, and the rules live on our Spelling Bee page.

Thursday’s hint grid, Nov. 12

Center letter T; outer letters C, D, E, H, O, U. 54 words, 233 points, one pangram.

Starts with	4 letters	5 letters	6 letters	7 letters	8 letters	Total
C	3	2	1	-	-	6
D	4	2	5	1	3	15
E	1	1	1	-	-	3
H	1	1	1	-	-	3
O	-	3	-	-	-	3
T	10	5	5	4	-	24
Total	19	14	13	5	3	54

Two-letter starts: CH-1, CO-3, CU-2, DE-6, DO-5, DU-4, ET-3, HO-2, HU-1, OC-1, OU-2, TE-5, TH-4, TO-12, TU-3.

Pangram hint

• Pangram (7 letters, starts with T)

  what a hot stove or a heartfelt moment did to you; T appears twice and the word ends in -ed.

The to pair is the biggest with 12 words, then de with 6, and do and te with 5 each. Between them, T and D open 39 of the 54 words.

Longest words and endings on Nov. 12

Length	Words	Points each	Points
4 letters	19	1	19
5 letters	14	5	70
6 letters	13	6	78
7 letters	5	7	35
8 letters	3	8	24
Pangram bonus	1	7	7

• Longest words: three at 8 letters (starting with D, D and D); five at 7 letters (starting with D, T, T, T and T); 13 at 6 letters (starting with C, D, D, D, D, D, E, H, T, T, T, T and T).
• Endings: 20 answers end in -ed.
• Letter reach: E is in 39 words, D in 31, O in 29, U in 25, C in 22 and H in 22.
• Doubles: 36 words repeat a letter, and 17 do it back to back.
• Four-letter share: 19 points, leaving 144 of the Genius total for longer words.

Wednesday in brief

Wednesday’s honeycomb had V in the center, 21 words and 124 points. The pangram was Deductive.

Also for Thursday: Wordle hints, Connections hints, Strands hints. A printable November calendar and a weekly calendar can hold your streak.

Thursday’s Spelling Bee answers, Nov. 12, 2026 (spoilers)

Stop here if you are still working on Thursday’s puzzle.

• Pangram: Touched
• 4 letters: Coot, Cote, Cute, Dote, Doth, Duct, Duet, Etch, Hoot, Tech, Teed, Thee, Thou, Thud, Toed, Toot, Tote, Tout, Tutu
• 5 letters: Chute, Couth, Doeth, Doted, Etude, Hutch, Octet, Outdo, Outed, Teeth, Tooth, Toted, Touch, Tutee
• 6 letters: Cutout, Decoct, Deduct, Detect, Dotted, Ducted, Etched, Hooted, Teethe, Tooted, Touche, Touted, Tutted
• 7 letters: Duetted, Teethed, Thudded, Toothed, Touched
• 8 letters: Decocted, Deducted, Detected

The 19 four-letter words give 19 points, the 35 longer words give 207, and the pangram bonus adds 7, for 233.