Spelling Bee May 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: L
Puzzle stats
Total words
56
Total points
242
Pangrams
4
Genius score
169
Center letter
L
Pangrams
Uses all 7 letters
- DOCTORAL
- DOCTORAL
- CARTLOAD
- CARTLOAD
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
121 pts
50%
Genius
169 pts
70%
Queen Bee
242 pts
100%
All accepted words
- allocator
- allot
- altar
- alto
- aortal
- atoll
- call
- calla
- callaloo
- carload
- carol
- cartload
- cartload
- catcall
- clad
- cloaca
- clod
- clot
- coal
- cola
- cold
- collar
- collard
- color
- colt
- cool
- coral
- corolla
- corral
- doctoral
- doctoral
- doll
- dollar
- dolor
- dolt
- droll
- drool
- lard
- load
- local
- locator
- loco
- loll
- loot
- lord
- lotto
- octal
- oral
- roll
- talc
- tall
- told
- toll
- tool
- total
- troll
About this puzzle
The NYT Spelling Bee for Sunday, May 17, 2026 uses the seven letters A, C, D, L, O, R, T, with L as the center letter that must appear in every word.
Today's puzzle has 56 accepted words for a total of 242 points. To reach Genius rank, players need 169 points — about 70% of the total. The full Queen Bee score requires every word.
This puzzle has 4 pangrams — words that use all seven letters. Each pangram earns a 7-point bonus on top of its regular score.