The September 9, 2026, NYT Spelling Bee is a relatively compact but deceptively tricky puzzle. The center letter is R, while the six surrounding letters are I, L, N, O, P and U. Every accepted word must contain R, and players can reuse letters as many times as necessary.
For players who have already found the obvious four-letter words, the real challenge lies in spotting less familiar entries such as INURN, PRION, PORNO and PRONOUN. Those words can make the difference between an ordinary score and a complete solution.
Today’s NYT Spelling Bee letters
The September 9 puzzle uses seven letters:
R I L N O P U
The center letter is R.
The six outer letters are:
I, L, N, O, P, U
As with every Spelling Bee puzzle, every valid answer must contain the center letter. Letters can also be repeated, which opens the door to words such as POOR, PURL, PURR, ROLL and UNROLL.
TodayHint confirms that the puzzle accepts 20 words and that the answers range from four to seven letters.
What is today’s NYT Spelling Bee pangram?
Today’s pangram is:
PURLOIN
A pangram uses all seven letters in the puzzle at least once. PURLOIN contains P, U, R, L, O, I and N, making it the only pangram in today’s puzzle.
The word purloin means to steal or take something wrongfully, often discreetly. It is also today’s longest answer at seven letters, although PRONOUN is another seven-letter word on the board.
Finding the pangram is particularly useful because it immediately confirms that every letter in the hive can be incorporated into a single answer.
7-letter NYT Spelling Bee answers
There are two seven-letter answers today:
- PRONOUN
- PURLOIN
Both answers use seven letters, but only PURLOIN is the pangram because it incorporates all seven letters available in the hive.
PRONOUN is a familiar grammatical term, while PURLOIN is the more elusive entry and the word most likely to be missed by players who focus exclusively on everyday vocabulary.
6-letter NYT Spelling Bee answers
There is one six-letter answer:
- UNROLL
UNROLL is built around a straightforward word pattern, but repeated-letter rules are important when solving it. The ability to reuse letters is one of the defining mechanics of Spelling Bee and can make longer answers considerably easier to find once players begin testing common prefixes and suffixes.
5-letter NYT Spelling Bee answers
The four five-letter answers are:
- INURN
- PORNO
- PRION
- PRIOR
This group contains some of the puzzle’s more challenging vocabulary.
INURN means to place cremated remains in an urn. PRION is a scientific term referring to a misfolded infectious protein associated with several diseases affecting the brain and nervous system. PRIOR is considerably more familiar and means earlier or previous.
PORNO is also accepted by the puzzle’s word list.
These entries demonstrate why simply scanning for common words is not enough to complete a difficult Spelling Bee. Players need to work through word families and consider vocabulary that may not appear frequently in everyday conversation.
4-letter NYT Spelling Bee answers
The 13 four-letter answers are:
- IRON
- NOIR
- NORI
- POOR
- PORN
- POUR
- PROP
- PURL
- PURR
- RILL
- ROIL
- ROLL
- RUIN
The four-letter category contains most of today’s answers.
Several are immediately recognizable, including IRON, POOR, POUR, ROLL and RUIN. Others can be harder to spot because they belong to specialized vocabulary or depend on less obvious letter arrangements.
NOIR and NORI, for example, can easily escape notice if a player is thinking only in terms of conventional English word patterns. PURL and RILL are similarly useful reminders that Spelling Bee frequently rewards a broader vocabulary.
Repeated letters also matter. POOR, PURR and ROLL all demonstrate how the game’s rules allow the same letter to appear more than once.
Full NYT Spelling Bee answer list for September 9
For players who want the complete solution, today’s 20 answers are:
7 letters
- PRONOUN
- PURLOIN
6 letters
- UNROLL
5 letters
- INURN
- PORNO
- PRION
- PRIOR
4 letters
- IRON
- NOIR
- NORI
- POOR
- PORN
- POUR
- PROP
- PURL
- PURR
- RILL
- ROIL
- ROLL
- RUIN
How to solve today’s NYT Spelling Bee
The most efficient strategy for this puzzle is to start with the center letter R and build word families around it.
The PR, PO, PU, RO, RI, RU, NO and IN combinations provide a useful roadmap. Today’s answer distribution shows that the P-starting words dominate the board, accounting for 11 of the 20 answers. R begins another four answers, while I and N each begin two, and U begins one. No answers begin with L or O.
Players should also test repeated letters aggressively. Words such as POOR, PROP, PURR and ROLL would be impossible if each letter could be used only once, but Spelling Bee explicitly allows repetition.
Another productive tactic is to search for longer forms after finding shorter words. Discovering PURL and PURR, for example, can encourage players to explore the broader PUR- family and eventually uncover PURLOIN.
The same approach works with ROLL and UNROLL, where adding letters transforms a familiar shorter structure into a longer accepted word.
Every day, along with answers for Wordle, NYT Connections, NYT Strands, and NYT Mini Crossword. New solutions go live each day at midnight ET.
