NYT Spelling Bee Answers for August 21, 2026
Today's NYT Spelling Bee uses center letter U with outer letters D, G, H, N, O, R. The puzzle contains 23 words worth 95 points, including 1 pangram. The longest word is 9 letters. To reach Genius you need 67 points; Queen Bee requires all 95 points. Today is not a bingo — at least one letter starts no words. Compared with the eight-year average of about 183 points per puzzle, this is a smaller-than-average day.
Game Summary
| Center Letter | U |
|---|---|
| Outer Letters | d, g, h, n, o, r |
| # of Pangrams | 1 (Perfect: none) |
| Total Words | 23 words |
| Total Points | 95 points |
| Genius Level | 67 points |
| Bingo? | No |
Table of Contents
As you scroll down this page, the clues get progressively more revealing. So scroll slowly!
- Spelling Bee Grid
- Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
- Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
- Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing) 🤯
- Today's Complete Solution
- 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.
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Σ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | 6 |
| G | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | 4 |
| H | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 3 |
| N | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 2 |
| O | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| R | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 3 |
| U | 2 | - | 2 | - | 1 | - | 5 | Σ | 10 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 23 |
Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding two letters.
| D | DO×2 DR×1 DU×3 |
|---|---|
| G | GO×1 GR×2 GU×1 |
| H | HO×2 HU×1 |
| N | NO×1 NU×1 |
| O | |
| R | RO×2 RU×1 |
| U | UD×1 UN×4 |
Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding three letters.
| D | DOU×2 DRU×1 DUG×1 DUN×2 |
|---|---|
| G | GOU×1 GRO×2 GUR×1 |
| H | HOU×2 HUN×1 |
| N | NOU×1 NUN×1 |
| O | |
| R | ROU×2 RUN×1 |
| U | UDO×1 UND×1 UNG×1 UNH×2 |
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 (†).
| Word | 2L Ref | Definition (click to reveal) |
|---|---|---|
| gr....... † | GR9 | A red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America. |
| do... | DO5 | A thick, malleable substance made by mixing flour with other ingredients such as water, eggs, and/or butter, that is made into a particular form and then baked. |
| do.. | DO4 | Stern, harsh and forbidding. |
| dr.. | DR4 | A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose. |
| du.... | DU6 | A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the genus Dugong, found in tropical regions. |
| du.. | DU4 | Manure; animal excrement. |
| du... | DU5 | Pronunciation spelling of do not know; pronunciation spelling of does not know. |
| go... | GO5 | Any of the trailing or climbing vines producing fruit with a hard rind or shell, from the genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita (in Cucurbitaceae). |
| gr.... | GR6 | The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground. |
| gu.. | GU4 | A Hindu or Sikh spiritual teacher. |
| ho... | HO5 | A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals. |
| ho.. | HO4 | A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth of a day. |
| hu.. | HU4 | simple past tense and past participle of hang (except when referring to the method of execution; there, hanged is used instead) |
| no.. | NO4 | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English. |
| nu..... | NU7 | The status or condition of being a nun. |
| ro... | RO5 | Not smooth; uneven. |
| ro... | RO5 | Of shape: Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction. |
| ru.. | RU4 | A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round. |
| ud.. | UD4 | a Japanese wheat noodle |
| un.. | UN4 | To reverse the effects of an action. |
| un...... | UN8 | Not having been ground; unpulverized. |
| un.... | UN6 | To remove the hood from. |
| un.... | UN6 | Not (yet) executed by hanging; unhanged. |
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.
- groundhog† (GR9)
- dough (DO5)
- dour (DO4)
- drug (DR4)
- dugong (DU6)
- dung (DU4)
- dunno (DU5)
- gourd (GO5)
- ground (GR6)
- guru (GU4)
- hound (HO5)
- hour (HO4)
- hung (HU4)
- noun (NO4)
- nunhood (NU7)
- rough (RO5)
- round (RO5)
- rung (RU4)
- udon (UD4)
- undo (UN4)
- unground (UN8)
- unhood (UN6)
- unhung (UN6)
Answer Definitions
- groundhog† (noun): A red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.
- dough (noun): A thick, malleable substance made by mixing flour with other ingredients such as water, eggs, and/or butter, that is made into a particular form and then baked.
- dour (adjective): Stern, harsh and forbidding.
- drug (noun): A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
- dugong (noun): A plant-eating aquatic marine mammal, of the genus Dugong, found in tropical regions.
- dung (noun): Manure; animal excrement.
- dunno (contraction): Pronunciation spelling of do not know; pronunciation spelling of does not know.
- gourd (noun): Any of the trailing or climbing vines producing fruit with a hard rind or shell, from the genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita (in Cucurbitaceae).
- ground (noun): The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
- guru (noun): A Hindu or Sikh spiritual teacher.
- hound (noun): A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.
- hour (noun): A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth of a day.
- hung (verb): simple past tense and past participle of hang (except when referring to the method of execution; there, hanged is used instead)
- noun (noun): A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
- nunhood (noun): The status or condition of being a nun.
- rough (adjective): Not smooth; uneven.
- round (adjective): Of shape: Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction.
- rung (noun): A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.
- udon (noun): a Japanese wheat noodle
- undo (verb): To reverse the effects of an action.
- unground (adjective): Not having been ground; unpulverized.
- unhood (verb): To remove the hood from.
- unhung (adjective): Not (yet) executed by hanging; unhanged.