Saturday · 73 words

Spelling Bee February 21, 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: M

A
C
I
M
N
O
T

Puzzle stats

accepted words

Total words

72

accepted entries

Total points

483

Queen Bee score

Pangrams

12

words using all 7 letters

Genius score

338

70% of total

Center letter

M

required in every word

Pangrams

+7 bonus per word

Uses all 7 letters

  • CONTAMINATION
  • CONTAMINATION
  • CONTAMINANT
  • CONTAMINANT
  • MONATOMIC
  • MANICOTTI
  • MONATOMIC
  • MANICOTTI
  • AMNIOTIC
  • ANATOMIC
  • ANATOMIC
  • AMNIOTIC

Rank thresholds

Points needed for each rank

Beginner

0 pts

0%

Good Start

9 pts

2%

Moving Up

24 pts

5%

Good

38 pts

8%

Solid

72 pts

15%

Nice

120 pts

25%

Great

193 pts

40%

Amazing

241 pts

50%

Genius

338 pts

70%

Queen Bee

483 pts

100%

All accepted words

Grouped by starting letter
A 12 words
  • amino
  • ammo
  • ammonia
  • amnio
  • amniotic
  • amniotic
  • anatomic
  • anatomic
  • anima
  • animation
  • atom
  • atomic
C 15 words
  • caiman
  • cami
  • camo
  • catmint
  • cinnamon
  • coma
  • comic
  • comma
  • commit
  • common
  • commotion
  • contaminant
  • contaminant
  • contamination
  • contamination
I 3 words
  • imam
  • imitation
  • intimation
M 34 words
  • maim
  • main
  • maintain
  • mama
  • mamma
  • mammon
  • mania
  • maniac
  • manic
  • manicotti
  • manicotti
  • manna
  • manta
  • mica
  • mimic
  • mini
  • minicam
  • minim
  • minima
  • minion
  • mint
  • mitt
  • moan
  • moat
  • momma
  • monatomic
  • monatomic
  • mono
  • monomania
  • monomaniac
  • moon
  • moot
  • motion
  • motto
N 2 words
  • nomination
  • noncom
O 2 words
  • omit
  • ottoman
T 4 words
  • tatami
  • tomato
  • tomcat
  • tomtit

About this puzzle

The NYT Spelling Bee for Saturday, February 21, 2026 uses the seven letters A, C, I, M, N, O, T, with M as the center letter that must appear in every word.

Today's puzzle has 72 accepted words for a total of 483 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 338 points — about 70% of the total. The full Queen Bee score requires every word.

This puzzle has 12 pangrams — words that use all seven letters. Each pangram earns a 7-point bonus on top of its regular score.

Play today's Spelling Bee on The New York Times.

Spelling Bee february 21 2026 Answers — Pangram & Word List | AppWalkthrough