Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for March 20, 2026

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

Words56
Pangrams1
Points possible232
Center letterM
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published March 20, 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.

ET
AMD
HC

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
19 pts
Good
35 pts
Solid
58 pts
Nice
93 pts
Great
116 pts
Amazing
163 pts
Genius
198 pts
Queen Bee
232 pts
Total words
56
Pangrams
1
Possible points
232

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
matched +14 pts

The full word list

All 56 valid Spelling Bee solutions for March 20, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters22 words
acmeahemcamedamedeemhememacemademamamatemathmeadmeatmeetmememetametemethtameteamteemthem
5 letters13 words
edemaemceemacedmadammammamatchmatedmattemeccamemedmetedtamedtheme
6 letters12 words
dammeddeemedemceedhamatehammedhemmedmadamematchamattedteamedteemedthemed
7 letters6 words
academeedamamemacadammachetemahatmamatched
8 letters3 words
meatheadmetadatateammate

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.

matched +14meathead +8metadata +8teammate +8academe +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for March 20, 2026 has 56 valid words for a total of 232 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 198 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.