The NYT Spelling Bee for Tuesday, July 14, 2026, has center letter I and outer letters V, T, R, O, L, C. There is one pangram today: VITRIOLIC (9 letters, 16 points), which uses all seven letters exactly once.
Three hints before the full word list:
Hint 1: The pangram is an adjective describing language or criticism that is bitterly harsh and corrosive in tone – the kind used to attack, not to persuade.
Hint 2: A 7-letter word in today’s grid names the sulfuric acid compound at the root of the pangram’s meaning.
Hint 3: Today’s letters generate a cluster of words ending in -OLL, -OOT, -ILL, and -OT. Expect the four-letter tier to fill fast once the pattern clicks.
Today’s pangram: VITRIOLIC
VITRIOLIC means sharply hostile, bitterly harsh – language so corrosive it leaves a mark. The adjective comes from VITRIOL, itself a 7-letter word also valid in today’s puzzle. Vitriol, originally named sulfuric acid and its metallic salts: compounds so caustic they ate through almost anything they touched. The word entered English via medieval Latin vitreolum, from vitreus (glassy), because vitriol crystals had a glassy, translucent appearance. By the 17th century, the figurative sense had taken hold, and by the 19th it had largely displaced the chemical one. To call speech vitriolic is to say it burns.
ROTOTILL (8 letters) – to break up soil using a rotary tiller. ROTO (circular motion) plus TILL (to cultivate land). One of today’s more satisfying constructions: it feels assembled from working parts rather than simply remembered.
TRICOLOR (8 letters) – a flag or design divided into three colors. Most closely associated with the French tricolore, blue, white, red, but generic in English. It reuses both I and O, a useful reminder that Spelling Bee tiles can be used more than once.
ILLICIT (7 letters) – not legally permitted or sanctioned. Regularly confused with ELICIT (to draw out or obtain), which shares the same sound but different letters entirely. Only ILLICIT is available in today’s grid – and only because its double-L, double-I structure stays within the available set.
Among the six-letter words: CRITIC (double C, both uses of the same tile allowed), CITRIC (as in citric acid), TRICOT (a fine knitted fabric), and VICTOR (a winner – unremarkable as a word but a reliable find for solvers working alphabetically).
Complete word list – NYT Spelling Bee, July 14, 2026:
9 letters: VITRIOLIC
8 letters: ROTOTILL, TRICOLOR
7 letters: ILLICIT, VITRIOL
6 letters: CITRIC, CRITIC, TRICOT, VICTOR
5 letters: LICIT, LOTTO, ROTOR, TORIC, TORII, TRILL, TROLL
4 letters: CLOT, COLT, COOT, LILT, LOOT, RIOT, ROOT, ROTI, TILL, TILT, TOIL, TOLL, TOOL, TOOT, TORI, TORO, TORT, TRIO, TROT, VOLT
Yesterday’s NYT Spelling Bee for July 13, 2026 had center letter M and pangram COMMITTAL. Today’s Wordle #1851 answer is STEAK. The Spelling Bee resets at midnight ET.
