Today's NYT Spelling Bee uses center letter N with outer letters P, A, I, F, L, U. The puzzle contains 32 words worth 126 points, including 1 pangram — PAINFUL (1 of which is perfect). The longest word is PAINFUL at 7 letters. To reach Genius you need 88 points; Queen Bee requires all 126 points. Today is a bingo — every letter starts at least one word. Compared with the eight-year average of about 183 points per puzzle, this is a smaller-than-average day.

Game Summary

Table of Contents

As you scroll down this page, the clues get progressively more revealing. So scroll slowly!

1. Spelling Bee Grid
2. Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
3. Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
4. Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing) 🤯
5. Today's Complete Solution
6. Answer Definitions

If you're just here for a list of NYT Spelling Bee answers, Jump down to the answers ↓ (Spoiler Alert!).

Spelling Bee Grid

The following table shows the standard Spelling Bee summary grid, which lists word lengths across the top and letters down the left-hand side. The cell where the word lengths and letters intersect displays the number of words in today's puzzle with the corresponding first letter and word length.

Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding two letters.

Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding three letters.

Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing)

The table below lists all of the solutions to today's puzzle, but they're concealed. You can click the plus button (+) to reveal additional letters, one-by-one.

Concealed definitions are provided as additional clues. You can toggle concealment of the definitions by clicking on the concealer bar or the text that appears when the definition is visible.

Pangrams are marked with a dagger symbol (^†).

Today's Complete Solution

The words that follow are a complete listing of all acceptable words in today's New York Time Spelling Bee puzzle.

Next to the answer word you'll see the two-letter reference (2L Ref) in parentheses. We added that 2L Ref for easier translation of the spoiler-avoidant language you see on the Spelling Bee Forum and Twitter. The 2L Ref signifies a word's two start letters followed by the total number of letters in the word.

• anal  (AN4)
• annal  (AN5)
• annual  (AN6)
• annul  (AN5)
• annuli  (AN6)
• apian  (AP5)
• faun  (FA4)
• fauna  (FA5)
• faunal  (FA6)
• final  (FI5)
• finial  (FI6)
• flan  (FL4)
• infill  (IN6)
• lain  (LA4)
• lanai  (LA5)
• luna  (LU4)
• lunula  (LU6)
• naan  (NA4)
• naif  (NA4)
• nail  (NA4)
• nana  (NA4)
• null  (NU4)
• pain  (PA4)
• painful^†  (PA7)
• panini  (PA6)
• pinup  (PI5)
• pippin  (PI6)
• plain  (PL5)
• plan  (PL4)
• puffin  (PU6)
• ulna  (UL4)
• unpin  (UN5)

Answer Definitions

• anal (adjective): of, related to, intended for or involving the anus.
• annal (noun): The record of a single event or item.
• annual (adjective): Happening once every year.
• annul (verb): To formally revoke the validity of.
• annuli (noun): plural of annulus
• apian (adjective): Relating to bees.
• faun (noun): A woodland creature with pointed ears, legs, and short horns of a goat and a fondness for unrestrained revelry.
• fauna (noun): Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time.
• faunal (adjective): Pertaining to animals.
• final (noun): A final examination; a test or examination given at the end of a term or class; the test that concludes a class.
• finial (noun): The knot or bunch of foliage, or foliated ornament, that forms the upper extremity of a pinnacle in Gothic architecture.
• flan (noun): Baked tart with sweet or savoury filling in an open-topped pastry case.
• infill (verb): To fill in a space, hole or gap.
• lain (verb): past participle of lie (“to be oriented in a horizontal position, situated”)
• lanai (noun): A Hawaiian-style roofed patio.
• luna (noun): A luna moth: a member of species Actias luna.
• lunula (noun): Something shaped like a crescent or half-moon; especially the pale area at the base of the fingernail.
• naan (noun): A type of round, flat bread baked in a tandoor popular in South and Central Asian cuisine.
• naif (adjective): Alternative spelling of naïf.
• nail (noun): The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
• nana (noun): A banana.
• null (noun): A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
• pain (noun): An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
• painful^† (adjective): Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
• panini (noun): A type of grilled sandwich made of a small loaf of bread, cut horizontally, filled with meat such as salami or ham, cheese or other food.
• pinup (noun): Alternative form of pin-up
• pippin (noun): A seed
• plain (adjective): Flat, level.
• plan (noun): A drawing showing technical details of a building, machine, etc., with unwanted details omitted, and often using symbols rather than detailed drawing to represent doors, valves, etc.
• puffin (noun): The young of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), especially eaten as food.
• ulna (noun): The bone of the forearm that extends from the elbow to the wrist on the side opposite to the thumb, corresponding to the fibula of the hind limb. Also, the corresponding bone in the forelimb of any vertebrate.
• unpin (verb): To unfasten by removing a pin.