Spelling Bee Hints for Today
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
The Spelling Bee word puzzle by The New York Times challenges players to make as many words as possible from seven letters arranged in a honeycomb pattern, where every word must contain the center letter.
This page contains hints for today's Spelling Bee Puzzle. For today's answers, please visit the answers page. For yesterday's hints, visit the yesterday's hints page.
There are a total of 51 answers in Today's NYT Spelling Bee puzzle, including 3 pangram(s). None of the pangrams are perfect pangrams.
There are 21 4-letter words, 15 5-letter words, 6 6-letter words, 2 7-letter words, 3 8-letter words, 3 9-letter words, and 1 11-letter words in Today's puzzle.
The highest scoring word in Today's puzzle is worth 16 points.
Presented below are 7 sections of hints to help you solve Today's Spelling Bee: Summary, Length, First Letter, First Two Letters, First Letter And Length, Answers, and Levels.
Summary
| Answers: | 51 |
|---|---|
| Pangrams: | 3 |
| Perfect Pangrams: | 0 |
| Bingo: | Yes |
| Score: | 229 |
Length
| 4 | 21 | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 15 | |
| 6 | 6 | |
| 7 | 2 | |
| 8 | 3 | |
| 9 | 3 | |
| 11 | 1 |
First Letter
| A | 9 | |
|---|---|---|
| B | 18 | |
| C | 13 | |
| D | 4 | |
| K | 1 | |
| O | 2 | |
| R | 4 |
First Two Letters
| AB | 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| AC | 1 | |
| AD | 1 | |
| AR | 3 | |
| BA | 12 | |
| BO | 4 | |
| BR | 2 | |
| CA | 5 | |
| CO | 5 | |
| CR | 3 | |
| DA | 1 | |
| DO | 2 | |
| DR | 1 | |
| KA | 1 | |
| OK | 1 | |
| OR | 1 | |
| RA | 2 | |
| RO | 2 |
First Letter and Length
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 11 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 4 | 3 | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 9 |
| B | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ● | 18 |
| C | 5 | 6 | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | 13 |
| D | 2 | ● | 2 | ● | ● | ● | ● | 4 |
| K | ● | 1 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 |
| O | 2 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 |
| R | 3 | 1 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 4 |
| Total | 21 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 51 |
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Levels
| Beginner | 0 Points |
|---|---|
| Good Start | 5 Points |
| Moving Up | 11 Points |
| Good | 18 Points |
| Solid | 34 Points |
| Nice | 57 Points |
| Great | 92 Points |
| Amazing | 115 Points |
| Genius | 160 Points |
| Queen Bee | 229 Points |
The New York Times Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee by The New York Times is one of the most popular daily word puzzles. Created by Sam Ezersky in 2018, the game has grown exponentially in popularity and now engages hundreds of thousands of players each day.
How The Game Works
In this engaging word puzzle, seven letters are arranged in a distinctive honeycomb pattern. The center letter acts as the keystone - it must be included in every word you create. Players have to combine the available letters to form words that are at least four letters long.
Scoring System
The game rewards players based on word length and the number of unique letters used:
- 4-letter words: 1 point
- Longer words: 1 point per letter
- Pangrams (words using all seven letters): 7 bonus points
Players can achieve different ranks as they accumulate points:
| Beginner: | 0% of Total Points |
|---|---|
| Good Start: | 2% of Total Points |
| Moving Up: | 5% of Total Points |
| Good: | 8% of Total Points |
| Solid: | 15% of Total Points |
| Nice: | 25% of Total Points |
| Great: | 40% of Total Points |
| Amazing: | 50% of Total Points |
| Genius: | 70% of Total Points |
| Queen Bee: | 100% of Total Points |
Spelling Bee Hints
Our Spelling Bee hint system provides multiple ways to understand and strategically approach the daily puzzle without directly revealing all answers. The hints are organized into several informative sections:
1. Summary Statistics
The summary section provides key metrics about the day's puzzle:
- Total number of possible answers
- Number of pangrams (words using all 7 letters)
- Number of perfect pangrams (pangrams using all 7 letters exactly once)
- Bingo status (whether answers start with all possible letters)
- Total possible score
2. Word Length Distribution
This section shows how many words exist for each length, displayed both numerically and with visual bars for comparison.
3. First Letter Analysis
Shows the distribution of words beginning with each possible letter, helping players identify productive starting letters and track progress. Includes visual bars for quick pattern recognition.
4. First Two Letters Analysis
Reveals the frequency of different two-letter starting combinations, helping players identify common word beginnings and potential word patterns.
5. First Letter and Length Matrix
A comprehensive grid showing:
- How many words of each length start with each letter
- Row totals for each starting letter
- Column totals for each word length
6. Answer Revelation System
Features a flexible word revelation tool that allows players to:
- Choose to reveal 0-3 initial letters of each word
- Choose to reveal 0-3 last letters of each word
- Selectively reveal individual letters within words
- Toggle complete word visibility
- Track progress through numbered entries
7. Scoring Level Breakdown
Shows point thresholds for each achievement level from Beginner to Queen Bee for today's Spelling Bee puzzle.