Spelling Bee Hints & Answers Today, October 26, 2026

Updated Oct. 26, 2026, 4:00 a.m. ET. Monday's puzzle is live. The hint grid, two-letter list and full answers below come from the puzzle data on The New York Times' Spelling Bee page. Sunday's full solution is at the end.

Monday’s Spelling Bee from The New York Times (NYT), for Oct. 26, 2026, uses the center letter L with G, H, I, N, T and Y. It has 43 words worth 245 points and one pangram, and Genius takes 172 points. Every word must use the L, and most of the list ends in -ing or -ly. The hint grid and two-letter list come first; the word list waits in a marked spoiler section.

How Spelling Bee works

You get seven letters in a honeycomb. Each word must be at least four letters long and must use the yellow center letter; letters can repeat. A four-letter word is worth 1 point and a longer word is worth one point per letter. A pangram uses all seven letters and earns 7 extra points. Ranks climb as you score, and Genius sits at 70% of the day’s total, which is 172 of 245 points on Monday.

How to use the hint grid

The grid counts the answers by first letter and by length. Start with a row that has many short words, find those, then move to the longer columns. The two-letter list does the same job with more precision: “TI-11” means 11 answers begin with T and I.

Monday’s hint grid, Oct. 26, 2026

Center letter L; outer letters G, H, I, N, T, Y. 43 words, 245 points, one pangram.

Starts with	4 letters	5 letters	6 letters	7 letters	8 letters	9 letters	10 letters	12 letters	Total
G	2	1	1	1	2	-	-	-	7
H	2	1	1	1	-	1	-	1	7
I	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
L	3	3	1	2	1	1	-	-	11
N	-	-	1	2	1	-	1	-	5
T	2	1	4	4	1	-	-	-	12
Total	10	6	8	10	5	2	1	1	43

No answer starts with Y.

Two-letter starts: GI-5, GL-2, HI-7, IL-1, LI-10, LY-1, NI-5, TH-1, TI-11.

Two hints before the answers

• The pangram is a seven-letter adverb

  something that happens every evening.
• The longest word has 12 letters and starts with H; it is what you do with a yellow marker.

More of Monday’s games: Wordle hints, Connections hints and Pips hints. Sunday’s puzzle has its own page: Sunday’s Spelling Bee hints and answers. Track a Genius streak on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 calendar.

Monday’s Spelling Bee answers, Oct. 26, 2026 (spoilers)

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

• Pangram: Nightly
• 4 letters: Gill, Gilt, Hill, Hilt, Illy, Lilt, Lily, Lint, Till, Tilt
• 5 letters: Glint, Hilly, Light, Linty, Lying, Tilth
• 6 letters: Giggly, Highly, Lining, Niggly, Thinly, Tiling, Tingly, Tinily
• 7 letters: Gilling, Hilling, Lightly, Lilting, Nightly, Ninthly, Tightly, Tilling, Tilting, Titling
• 8 letters: Giggling, Glinting, Lighting, Niggling, Tingling
• 9 letters: Highlight, Lightning
• 10 letters: Nightlight
• 12 letters: Highlighting

The 10 four-letter words give 10 points, the 33 longer words give 228, and the pangram bonus adds 7, for 245.

Sunday’s Spelling Bee answers, Oct. 25, 2026 (spoilers)

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

• Pangrams: Binomial, Bibliomania
• 4 letters: Ammo, Balm, Blam, Bomb, Boom, Iamb, Imam, Lama, Lamb, Lima, Limb, Limn, Limo, Loam, Loom, Mail, Maim, Main, Mall, Mama, Mill, Mini, Moan, Moil, Moll, Mono, Moon
• 5 letters: Amino, Amnio, Anima, Bloom, Iambi, Limbo, Llama, Mamba, Mambo, Mamma, Mania, Manna, Minim, Momma, Moola, Nimbi
• 6 letters: Abloom, Animal, Bamboo, Lamina, Mammal, Mammon, Manila, Minima, Minion, Oilman
• 7 letters: Ammonia, Laminal, Liminal, Mailman, Million, Minimal, Monobob, Nominal
• 8 letters: Binomial, Monomial
• 9 letters: Mammalian, Monomania
• 11 letters: Bibliomania

The 27 four-letter words give 27 points, the 39 longer words give 241, and the two pangram bonuses add 14, for 282. Monobob, a one-person bobsled event, and Minim, a half note in music, are the ones most solvers miss.