Spelling Bee March 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: N
Puzzle stats
Total words
39
Total points
241
Pangrams
2
Genius score
168
Center letter
N
Pangrams
Uses all 7 letters
- EXCELLING
- EXCELLING
Rank thresholds
Beginner
0 pts
0%
Good Start
4 pts
2%
Moving Up
12 pts
5%
Good
19 pts
8%
Solid
36 pts
15%
Nice
60 pts
25%
Great
96 pts
40%
Amazing
120 pts
50%
Genius
168 pts
70%
Queen Bee
241 pts
100%
All accepted words
- ceiling
- cling
- clinging
- clinic
- egging
- engine
- excellence
- excelling
- excelling
- exiling
- gelling
- gene
- genie
- genii
- gigging
- giggling
- gilling
- ginning
- glen
- icing
- incline
- inclining
- innie
- inning
- legging
- lenience
- lien
- line
- linen
- lining
- negligee
- negligence
- nene
- nice
- niece
- niggle
- niggling
- nine
- nixing
About this puzzle
The NYT Spelling Bee for Monday, March 16, 2026 uses the seven letters C, E, G, I, L, N, X, with N as the center letter that must appear in every word.
Today's puzzle has 39 accepted words for a total of 241 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 168 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.