Answers for July 18, 2026

Complete verified solutions for the July 18, 2026 NYT Spelling Bee puzzle. All 73 words, pangrams, and point totals included below.

Last updated: July 18, 2026 at 3:00 AM EST

B

Quick Answer Summary

The puzzle on 2026-07-18 had 73 words worth 389 points total. Pangram(s) included elliptical, tailpiece. You needed 272 points (70%) to reach Genius rank.

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πŸ“Š Today's Puzzle Insights

How today's puzzle compares to all-time Spelling Bee history

πŸ“ˆ View All-Time Stats Hub
Difficulty Score
293 Medium
99th percentile
Total Words
73
98th percentile
Total Points
389
98th percentile
Avg Word Length
5.79
All-time avg: 5.3
🎯
272
Genius Threshold
70% of max points
πŸ‘‘
389
Queen Bee Score
100% β€” all words
πŸ…±οΈ
Yes
Bingo Status
All letters start
πŸ“ˆ
35
GN4L Value
Words after Genius
2️⃣
22
Unique 2L Starts
Two-letter openings
⏱️
75m
Est. Solve Time
To reach Genius

πŸ“Š Words by Length

16 words
4L 16
17 words
5L 17
18 words
6L 18
14 words
7L 14
5 words
8L 5
2 words (Pangram)
9L 2⭐
1 word (Pangram)
10L 1⭐

πŸ…±οΈ Words Starting with Each Letter

C🐝
19
P
11
A
10
E
10
L
10
T
8
I
5
Metric Today Average Record High Record Low
Total Words 73 ~44.2 77 16
Total Points 389 ~205.15 406 60
Avg Word Length 5.79 ~5.42 6.689655172413793 4.578947368421052
Pangram Count 2 ~1.49 4 1

πŸ“… Previous Puzzles with This Pangram

This is the first time this pangram has appeared in our archives.

🧩 Pangram Pattern Analysis

Today's featured pangram is ELLIPTICAL. It consists of 10 letters with a vowel-to-consonant ratio of 40% (4 vowels and 6 consonants).

  • ⚑ Structure: Standard pangram (features letter repetition)
  • ⚑ Repeated letters: L (x3), I (x2)

Today's featured pangram is TAILPIECE. It consists of 9 letters with a vowel-to-consonant ratio of 56% (5 vowels and 4 consonants).

  • ⚑ Structure: Standard pangram (features letter repetition)
  • ⚑ Repeated letters: I (x2), E (x2)
Understanding spelling bee pangram patterns helps players identify long, high-scoring words early in their daily solving run.

πŸ“š Etymology & Word Origins

Latinate ELLIPTICAL

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Latinate TAILPIECE

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Latinate ACETATE

The word displays linguistic traits typical of Latinate vocabulary, evolving through latin-derived prefixes and suffixes.

Linguistic history study helps in spotting letter clusters in the spelling bee glossary based on classical word origins.

🚫 Rejected Word List

These valid English words can be formed with today's letters but were not accepted by the NYT editor:

acale acappella acatalectic acataleptic acatallactic acate acca acce accel acceptee acceptilate accite acct aceite aceta
NYT Spelling Bee rules exclude proper nouns, hyphenated terms, offensive words, and highly obscure vocabulary at the editor's discretion.

Pangrams

elliptical (17 pts)tailpiece (16 pts)
Click to Reveal Pangram

4-Letter Words16 words

acai
call
cape
cell
cite
clap
clip
epic
lace
laic
lice
pace
Click to Reveal 16 4-Letter Words

5-Letter Words17 words

apace
attic
cacti
calla
celli
cilia
cleat
eclat
elect
iliac
licit
lilac
Click to Reveal 17 5-Letter Words

6-Letter Words18 words

acacia
accept
acetal
acetic
alpaca
apiece
caplet
cattle
celiac
elicit
icicle
ipecac
Click to Reveal 18 6-Letter Words

7-Letter Words14 words

acetate
calcite
capital
catalpa
catcall
cattail
electee
illicit
lactate
lacteal
lattice
piccata
Click to Reveal 14 7-Letter Words

8-Letter Words5 words

eclectic
ecliptic
elliptic
pellicle
tactical
Click to Reveal 5 8-Letter Words

9-Letter Words2 words

epileptic
tailpiece
Click to Reveal 2 9-Letter Words

10-Letter Words1 words

elliptical
Click to Reveal 1 10-Letter Words

About Today's Spelling Bee Puzzle

Today's NYT Spelling Bee features C as the center letter, with 73 words worth 389 points total. The pangram is "elliptical" β€” a 10-letter word that uses all seven hive letters.

You need 272 points to reach Genius rank. Want to solve it yourself first? Our hints page gives you two-letter lists without revealing the full answers.

New to Spelling Bee? Check out our complete rules guide or beginner's guide to learn the basics.

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🧩 NYT Puzzle Hub

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