Spelling Bee January 16, 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: C
Puzzle stats
Total words
46
Total points
192
Pangrams
2
Genius score
134
Center letter
C
Pangrams
Uses all 7 letters
- MALEFIC
- MALEFIC
Rank thresholds
Beginner
0 pts
0%
Good Start
3 pts
2%
Moving Up
9 pts
5%
Good
15 pts
8%
Solid
28 pts
15%
Nice
48 pts
25%
Great
76 pts
40%
Amazing
96 pts
50%
Genius
134 pts
70%
Queen Bee
192 pts
100%
All accepted words
- acacia
- acai
- acclaim
- acme
- cafe
- calf
- call
- calla
- calm
- came
- camel
- camellia
- cami
- celiac
- cell
- celli
- cilia
- claim
- clam
- clef
- cliff
- clime
- efface
- emcee
- face
- facial
- facile
- fecal
- fleece
- icefall
- icicle
- iliac
- lace
- laic
- laical
- lice
- lilac
- mace
- malefic
- malefic
- malic
- malice
- mecca
- mica
- mice
- mimic
About this puzzle
The NYT Spelling Bee for Friday, January 16, 2026 uses the seven letters A, C, E, F, I, L, M, with C as the center letter that must appear in every word.
Today's puzzle has 46 accepted words for a total of 192 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 134 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.