Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for July 23, 2026

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

Words40
Pangrams2
Points possible239
Center letterF
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published July 23, 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
NFU
DE

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
20 pts
Good
36 pts
Solid
60 pts
Nice
96 pts
Great
120 pts
Amazing
168 pts
Genius
204 pts
Queen Bee
239 pts
Total words
40
Pangrams
2
Possible points
239

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 2 pangrams
confounded +17 ptscofounded +16 pts

The full word list

All 40 valid Spelling Bee solutions for July 23, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters9 words
cuffdoffdufffeedfendfeudfondfoodfund
5 letters4 words
fencefoundoffedunfed
6 letters13 words
coffeecuffeddefenddefunddoffedfecundfencedfendedfeudedfonduefundedoffenduncuff
7 letters2 words
cofoundfounded
8 letters7 words
confounddefendeddefundedoffendeduncuffedunfencedunfunded
9 letters2 words
cofoundedunfounded
10 letters3 words
confoundedundefendedunoffended

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.

confounded +17cofounded +16undefended +10unoffended +10unfounded +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for July 23, 2026 has 40 valid words for a total of 239 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 204 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.