Spelling Bee April 17, 2026 answers
All accepted words for today's NYT Spelling Bee, with the pangram revealed, point totals, and progress thresholds for each rank.
Today's letter set · Center: R
Puzzle stats
Total words
51
Total points
230
Pangrams
2
Genius score
161
Center letter
R
Pangrams
Uses all 7 letters
- MIDBRAIN
- MIDBRAIN
Rank thresholds
Beginner
0 pts
0%
Good Start
4 pts
2%
Moving Up
11 pts
5%
Good
18 pts
8%
Solid
34 pts
15%
Nice
57 pts
25%
Great
92 pts
40%
Amazing
115 pts
50%
Genius
161 pts
70%
Queen Bee
230 pts
100%
All accepted words
- airman
- aria
- arid
- armada
- armband
- barb
- barbarian
- bard
- barmaid
- barman
- barn
- bird
- birdbrain
- birria
- brad
- braid
- brain
- bran
- brand
- briar
- brim
- darn
- dinar
- drab
- drain
- dram
- drama
- drib
- mandarin
- marimba
- marina
- marinara
- marm
- midair
- midbrain
- midbrain
- midrib
- minibar
- mirin
- nadir
- rabbi
- rabid
- radar
- radian
- radii
- raid
- rain
- ramada
- rand
- rani
- rind
About this puzzle
The NYT Spelling Bee for Friday, April 17, 2026 uses the seven letters A, B, D, I, M, N, R, with R as the center letter that must appear in every word.
Today's puzzle has 51 accepted words for a total of 230 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 161 points — about 70% of the total. The full Queen Bee score requires every word.
This puzzle has 2 pangrams — words that use all seven letters. Each pangram earns a 7-point bonus on top of its regular score.