NYT Spelling Bee
NYT Spelling Bee Answers & Hints — July 12, 2026
· Edited by Sam Ezersky · By Sneha Rajput
- 33total words
- 163total points
- 114genius score
- 3pangrams
Spelling Bee Hints for July 12, 2026
Five levels of help, gentlest first — take only as much as you need.
The pangrams
Guess it from the clue — tap any ? to uncover that letter.
“The process of rousing from sleep or becoming newly aware of something.”
“The gradual process of losing strength, power, or intensity.”
“The act of stirring from sleep or bringing something into active awareness.”
Words per starting letter
The gentlest nudge — which letters do the heavy lifting today.
Two-letter tally
How many words start with each pair — if a pair isn't here, nothing starts with it.
Word length grid
The most specific spoiler-free hint — hunt a missing word by its length.
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Σ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | 5 |
| E | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| G | 2 | – | – | 2 | – | – | 4 |
| I | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
| K | 6 | – | – | 4 | – | – | 10 |
| N | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| W | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Σ | 14 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 33 |
Spelling Bee Answers for July 12, 2026
The full word list for this puzzle, grouped by length.
Every answer, by length
Groups open on tap, so nothing spoils early. Tap any word for its meaning.
Pangram 3 words
7-letter words 9 words
6-letter words 4 words
5-letter words 3 words
4-letter words 14 words
4-letter words score 1 point, longer words score their length, pangrams add +7.
Puzzle Stats — July 12, 2026
Difficulty, rank thresholds and how this puzzle compares to the archive.
Difficulty
A moderately challenging puzzle that rewards solvers who can stack suffixes confidently. With only 33 words against a historical average of roughly 46, the answer list is notably lean, which means fewer easy footholds — but the three pangrams are all closely related forms of the same root concept, so finding one should unlock the others. The trickiest corner is a small cluster of less common words, including a fabric term and a few gerunds built on short, easy-to-overlook roots. Four-letter words are plentiful and should pad the score early, but climbing to Genius will require committing to the longer -ING chains.
33 words vs 43 on an average day · 163 points vs 191 · 3 pangrams vs 1.5
Points needed for every rank
| Rank | Points | % of max |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Bee 👑 | 163 | 100% |
| Genius | 114 | 70% |
| Amazing | 82 | 50% |
| Great | 65 | 40% |
| Nice | 41 | 25% |
| Solid | 24 | 15% |
| Good | 13 | 8% |
| Moving Up | 8 | 5% |
| Good Start | 3 | 2% |
| Beginner | 0 | 0% |
About the pangrams
awakening (16 pts). From Old English āwæcnan ('to awaken, to arise from sleep'), formed with the prefix ā- marking the inception of a new state and wæcnan ('to wake'); the noun sense of a spiritual or intellectual rousing gained particular force in 18th-century religious revival movements such as the Great Awakening.
weakening (16 pts). From Old English wāc ('pliant, soft, lacking strength'), related to Old Norse veikr; the verb 'weaken' is first recorded in the early 17th century, making this gerund/participial form a relatively modern derivation from an ancient Germanic root.
wakening (15 pts). Shares its ancestry with AWAKENING — Old English wæcnan — but drops the intensifying prefix; the shorter form has been used in English poetry since at least the 13th century, often carrying a gentler sense of gradual rousing rather than sudden revelation.
Puzzle facts
- Longest words: 9 letters (2 of them).
- 14 of 33 words are 4-letter, 1-point words.
- Edited by Sam Ezersky — 23 puzzles in our archive.