Spelling Bee February 20, 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: U
Puzzle stats
Total words
29
Total points
114
Pangrams
2
Genius score
79
Center letter
U
Pangrams
Uses all 7 letters
- LADYBUG
- LADYBUG
Rank thresholds
Beginner
0 pts
0%
Good Start
2 pts
2%
Moving Up
5 pts
5%
Good
9 pts
8%
Solid
17 pts
15%
Nice
28 pts
25%
Great
45 pts
40%
Amazing
57 pts
50%
Genius
79 pts
70%
Queen Bee
114 pts
100%
All accepted words
- baud
- bubba
- bubbly
- buddy
- buggy
- bulb
- bulgy
- bull
- bully
- daub
- dual
- dually
- dull
- dully
- duly
- gaudy
- glug
- gulag
- gull
- gully
- ladybug
- ladybug
- laud
- laudably
- luau
- lull
- lullaby
- lulu
- ugly
About this puzzle
The NYT Spelling Bee for Friday, February 20, 2026 uses the seven letters A, B, D, G, L, U, Y, with U as the center letter that must appear in every word.
Today's puzzle has 29 accepted words for a total of 114 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 79 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.