Today’s NYT Spelling Bee for Wednesday, August 26, 2026 uses center letter K with surrounding letters C, H, U, N, E, and D. The two pangrams are CHUNKED and UNCHECKED. The puzzle contains 34 words worth 150 points total.
Today’s Spelling Bee — Quick Stats
- Center letter: K
- Other letters: C, H, U, N, E, D
- Pangrams: CHUNKED, UNCHECKED
- Total words: 34
- Total points: 150
- Genius threshold: 105 points (70%)
Hints for NYT Spelling Bee — August 26, 2026
Three hints before the answers:
- Hint 1: Both pangrams involve something being broken into pieces or left without review.
- Hint 2: Short words built on the CK combination give you the fastest early points.
- Hint 3: One word in today’s list is a Japanese martial arts weapon — and the puzzle accepts two different spellings of it.
The Pangrams: CHUNKED and UNCHECKED
CHUNKED is the simpler find. To chunk something is to divide it into pieces — or in computing, to store or transmit data in segments. It uses all seven letters and comes naturally once players assemble the K, U, N cluster.
UNCHECKED is the longer pangram: something not verified, not corrected, or not stopped. Finding it requires spotting the UNC prefix that leads into CHECKED, which uses five of the seven letters. Add UN in front and the full pangram is complete. Most players discover UNCHECKED by working backward from a partial fragment.
Key Words to Find
NUNCHUCK and NUNCHUK — both spellings of the two-piece martial arts weapon are accepted, doubling the points from that word family. A useful bonus that is easy to miss without knowing both spellings are valid.
Other strong picks: CHECKED, CHUCKED, DECKED, DUCKED, DUNKED — past-tense verbs from the available consonant clusters. CHUCK, CHECK, CHUNK — short foundation words for early points. CHEEK, NECK, KNEED, NUKED, DUKED — single-syllable entries built from the center K.
How to Reach Genius Level
Players who find CHUNKED early and then stall will plateau around 80–90 points. The fastest path to Genius (105 points) is working backward from CHECKED to UNCHECKED once the short CK words are exhausted. Collecting both NUNCHUCK and NUNCHUK adds a useful bonus and helps bridge the gap.
Yesterday’s Spelling Bee
Yesterday’s NYT Spelling Bee answers for August 25, 2026 are in our archive, including pangrams and the full word list. See also the Spelling Bee for August 24, 2026. Today’s puzzle is at the NYT Spelling Bee page.
