NYT Spelling Bee Hints and Answers for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026: Hint Grid, Pangrams and Thursday's Solution

Friday’s Spelling Bee from The New York Times (NYT), for Oct. 30, 2026, puts C in the center with A, E, L, N, O and V around it. It has 66 words worth 333 points and two pangrams, with Genius at 233 points. The hint grid, the two-letter list and the pangram clues come first; the full word list waits in a spoiler section, with Thursday’s solution below it.

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. Genius sits at 70% of the day’s total, which is 233 of 333 points today.

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: “CA-16” means 16 answers begin with C and A.

Friday’s hint grid, Oct. 30, 2026

Center letter C; outer letters A, E, L, N, O, V. 66 words, 333 points, two pangrams.

Starts with	4 letters	5 letters	6 letters	7 letters	8 letters	9 letters	Total
A	1	-	1	-	-	-	2
C	12	16	9	5	3	2	47
E	-	-	1	1	-	-	2
L	2	2	1	-	-	-	5
N	-	1	1	1	1	-	4
O	1	1	-	-	-	-	2
V	-	1	-	3	-	-	4
Total	16	21	13	10	4	2	66

Two-letter starts: AC-1, AL-1, CA-16, CE-2, CL-9, CO-20, EN-2, LA-2, LO-3, NA-1, NE-1, NO-2, OC-1, ON-1, VA-2, VO-2.

Pangram hints

• Pangram 1 (8 letters, starts with C)

  a private or secret meeting.
• Pangram 2 (9 letters, starts with C)

  a chemistry word for the bonding of atoms that share electrons.

Look for doubles. A letter appears twice in a row in 12 of Friday’s answers, and seven of them have a double L.

More of Friday’s games: Wordle hints, Connections hints and Pips hints. Track a Genius streak on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 calendar.

Friday’s Spelling Bee answers, Oct. 30, 2026 (spoilers)

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

• Pangrams: Conclave, Covalence
• 4 letters: Acne, Call, Cane, Cava, Cave, Cell, Clan, Coal, Coca, Cola, Cone, Cool, Cove, Lace, Loco, Once
• 5 letters: Cacao, Calla, Calve, Canal, Canna, Canoe, Canon, Cello, Clave, Clean, Clone, Clove, Cocoa, Colon, Convo, Coven, Lance, Local, Nonce, Ocean, Vocal
• 6 letters: Alcove, Cancan, Cancel, Cannon, Canola, Cleave, Cloaca, Clonal, Cloven, Cocoon, Enlace, Locale, Neocon
• 7 letters: Colleen, Colonel, Concave, Conceal, Convene, Enclave, Nacelle, Valance, Valence, Volcano
• 8 letters: Callaloo, Coevolve, Conclave, Nonlocal
• 9 letters: Colcannon, Covalence

The 16 four-letter words give 16 points, the 50 longer words give 303, and the two pangram bonuses add 14, for 333.

Thursday’s hint grid, Oct. 29, 2026

Center letter R; outer letters A, D, G, N, O, P. 53 words, 227 points, two pangrams.

Starts with	4 letters	5 letters	6 letters	7 letters	8 letters	9 letters	10 letters	Total
A	1	5	1	-	-	-	-	7
D	4	2	2	1	-	-	-	9
G	4	2	2	2	2	1	-	13
O	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	3
P	4	2	1	1	1	-	1	10
R	7	4	-	-	-	-	-	11
Total	21	17	6	4	3	1	1	53

Two-letter starts: AD-1, AG-2, AN-1, AP-1, AR-2, DA-1, DO-3, DR-5, GO-2, GR-11, OD-1, OR-2, PA-3, PO-3, PR-4, RA-6, RO-5.

Thursday’s Spelling Bee answers, Oct. 29, 2026 (spoilers)

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

• Pangrams: Grandpop, Propaganda
• 4 letters: Agar, Darn, Door, Drag, Drop, Gorp, Grad, Gran, Grog, Odor, Poor, Porn, Prod, Prop, Raga, Rand, Rang, Road, Roan, Roar, Rood
• 5 letters: Adorn, Agora, Apron, Ardor, Argon, Donor, Droop, Grand, Groan, Orang, Organ, Porno, Prong, Radar, Radon, Rando, Rondo
• 6 letters: Angora, Dorado, Dragon, Gorgon, Grappa, Pardon
• 7 letters: Dragoon, Grandad, Grandpa, Paragon
• 8 letters: Granddad, Grandpop, Paradrop
• 9 letters: Grandpapa
• 10 letters: Propaganda

The 21 four-letter words give 21 points, the 32 longer words give 192, and the two pangram bonuses add 14, for 227.