Spelling Bee Answers for May 16, 2026
The complete word list, every pangram, and the seven letters of the hive for today's NYT Spelling Bee. Hand-checked at release.
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.
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:
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 3 pangrams
The full word list
All 64 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 16, 2026, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.
Tap to reveal the full word list
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.
About this Spelling Bee puzzle
The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 16, 2026 has 64 valid words for a total of 286 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 244 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.
Recent Spelling Bee puzzles
Catch up on the last week of Spelling Bees. Each link goes straight to that day's full word list.