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NYT Spelling Bee · Daily puzzle archive

Spelling Bee answers · Friday, August 21, 2026

Longest word
groundhog
9 letters
Top scorer
groundhog
16 points
Starting letters
6 of 7
letters that start a word
Average length
5.1
letters per word

Words by length

Spoiler-safe. Use it to see where the long ones hide.

4 letters
10
5 letters
6
6 letters
4
7 letters
1
8 letters
1
9 letters
1

The hints grid

How many words of each length start with each letter — the classic Bee cheat sheet.

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
R
1
2
3
U
2
2
1
5
Σ
10
6
4
1
1
1
23

Two-letter pairs

The first two letters of every answer, and how many words start with each pair.

D
do 2dr 1du 3
G
go 1gr 2gu 1
H
ho 2hu 1
N
no 1nu 1
R
ro 2ru 1
U
ud 1un 4

All 23 answers

95 points total · tap a word for its definition · pangram gets a ★
dough5
dour1
drug1
dugong6
dung1
dunno5
gourd5
ground6
groundhogpangram16
guru1
hound5
hour1
hung1
noun1
nunhood7
rough5
round5
rung1
udon1
undo1
unground8
unhood6
unhung6
Blurred so you can’t peek by accident.