Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for April 3, 2026

The complete word list, every pangram, and the seven letters of the hive for today's NYT Spelling Bee. Hand-checked at release.

Words34
Pangrams1
Points possible143
Center letterK
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published April 3, 2026·3 min read

Hand-checked every word in this list against the live Spelling Bee on the morning of release. Spotted an error?

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Today's seven letters

The center letter is yellow and must appear in every valid word. The six surrounding letters are optional. Every word in the puzzle is at least four letters long.

EN
LKD
AF

Stats & rank thresholds

The Spelling Bee scoring tops out at Queen Bee — the rank you earn for finding every word, including all pangrams. Here are today's point thresholds:

Beginner
0 pts
Moving Up
12 pts
Good
22 pts
Solid
36 pts
Nice
58 pts
Great
72 pts
Amazing
101 pts
Genius
122 pts
Queen Bee
143 pts
Total words
34
Pangrams
1
Possible points
143

Pangrams

A pangram uses all seven letters from today's hive at least once. Each pangram is worth its letter count + a 7-point bonus.

Today's 1 pangram
flanked +14 pts

The full word list

All 34 valid Spelling Bee solutions for April 3, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters13 words
dankdekeekedfakeflakkalekeelkeenkneelakelankleakleek
5 letters10 words
ankledekedfakedflakeflankkneadkneedkneelknellnaked
6 letters5 words
flakedkeeledkeenedkennelleaked
7 letters5 words
flankedkneadedkneeledknellednankeen
8 letters1 word
kenneled

Top-scoring words today

The five words worth the most points in today's puzzle — mostly pangrams and long compound words. These alone can push you over the Genius threshold.

flanked +14kenneled +8kneaded +7kneeled +7knelled +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for April 3, 2026 has 34 valid words for a total of 143 possible points. Hitting Queen Bee means finding every single one. The Genius threshold is roughly 85 percent of the total, so today that's about 122 pts.

Stuck on a clue? Jump back to the Spelling Bee hub for strategy tips, the rank-by-rank breakdown, the full archive, and an explainer on how the NYT picks each day's seven letters.

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Recent Spelling Bee puzzles

Catch up on the last week of Spelling Bees. Each link goes straight to that day's full word list.