Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for February 21, 2026

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

Words66
Pangrams6
Points possible383
Center letterM
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published February 21, 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.

CO
TMI
NA

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
31 pts
Good
58 pts
Solid
96 pts
Nice
154 pts
Great
192 pts
Amazing
269 pts
Genius
326 pts
Queen Bee
383 pts
Total words
66
Pangrams
6
Possible points
383

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 6 pangrams
contamination +20 ptscontaminant +18 ptsmonatomic +16 ptsmanicotti +16 ptsamniotic +15 ptsanatomic +15 pts

The full word list

All 66 valid Spelling Bee solutions for February 21, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters19 words
ammoatomcamicamocomaimammaimmainmamamicaminimintmittmoanmoatmonomoonmootomit
5 letters14 words
aminoamnioanimacomiccommamammamaniamanicmannamantamimicminimmommamotto
6 letters14 words
atomiccaimancommitcommonmammonmaniacminimaminionmotionnoncomtatamitomatotomcattomtit
7 letters4 words
ammoniacatmintminicamottoman
8 letters4 words
amnioticanatomiccinnamonmaintain
9 letters6 words
animationcommotionimitationmanicottimonatomicmonomania
10 letters3 words
intimationmonomaniacnomination
11 letters1 word
contaminant
13 letters1 word
contamination

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.

contamination +20contaminant +18manicotti +16monatomic +16amniotic +15

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for February 21, 2026 has 66 valid words for a total of 383 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 326 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.