Your Spelling Bee Companion for Thursday, June 18, 2026
A field guide for the T D E F I O X hive: how many words you need, strategies for finding them, and (if you turn hint mode off) the full word lists you need to reach Genius and Queen Bee today.
Today's Board
Verified Answers
40
Disputed Words
4
Pangrams
2
Score for Queen Bee
168
Genius estimate: 118 points
Verified Answers
40
Find every accepted word in today's source list
Pangrams
2
Use all seven letters
Disputed Words
4
In our dictionary but not the Spelling Bee list
Puzzle Snapshot
Solve The Hive Before The Spoilers
This page is currently in hint mode: you get the board, counts, estimated score targets, and strategy prompts without answer words. Reveal specific words only when you are ready to check your solve.
Today's Read
Medium board with two X-powered pangrams and a deep past-tense ladder
Today's center letter is T, and this hive scores best when you stretch past familiar four-letter checks into the DETOX, TEXT, and TO- families. Start by testing words that turn clean bases into -ED or -IED forms, because this board hides two all-letter payoffs inside that longer-word lane. Once the X and double-T patterns feel legal, the short cleanup answers become much easier to spot.
Verified answers
40
Max score
168
Genius
118
2 pangrams
Pangram Hunt
Start by forcing every letter into longer shapes before clearing short entries. Pangrams are the fastest way to move the score.
168 possible points
Point Density
The current candidate pool estimates a Genius target around 118 points. Longer words matter more than raw word count.
40 verified answers
Queen Bee Path
Use the word lists below to scoop up every point you need to reach Queen Bee.
Study mode
Definition Pass
Click unfamiliar words to reveal their definitions and cement them in your memory for next time.
Spoiler-Light Scan
Two-Letter Start Counts
Use these starts as a checklist without revealing full answers.
TO
7
words
TI
5
words
DE
4
words
FE
4
words
TE
4
words
DI
3
words
DO
3
words
FO
3
words
ED
2
words
EX
2
words
EF
1
word
FI
1
word
Score Planning
Word-Length Grid
Longer rows carry more score. Clear them before the four-letter cleanup.
4 letters
17
one-point cleanup
5 letters
8
score-building row
6 letters
12
score-building row
7 letters
1
score-building row
8 letters
1
1 pangram
10 letters
1
1 pangram
Progressive Hint
First-Letter Counts
T
16
answers
D
10
answers
F
8
answers
E
5
answers
I
1
answer
Pattern Prompts
Work The Board Without Reveals
- DETOX ladder: This is the clearest path to big points: a short accepted base grows into a seven-letter scorer and then the ten-letter top hit. Examples: detox, detoxed, detoxified.
- TOXI- branch: If you trust X early, the second pangram appears much faster and confirms that this board wants longer chemical-looking shapes. Examples: toxified, text, texted.
- -TED and -IED endings: Past-tense endings do real work here. Keep extending clean stems instead of assuming the board stops at the base word. Examples: dieted, edited, texted, tidied, tooted.
- Double-T family: Repeated T is not a trap on this hive. Several strong answers depend on trusting doubled consonants before cleanup mode begins. Examples: ditto, dotted, fitted, toffee, toot.
- TO- cleanup sweep: Once the long scores are banked, TO- yields a dense cluster of short and mid-length answers that finish the board efficiently. Examples: toed, toffee, toot, tooted, tote, toted.
Common Prefixes
DE-
DE- is the productive opener because it carries both pangram infrastructure and one of the cleanest score ladders.
Examples: deft, detox, detoxed, detoxified
DI-
DI- is more than one short check word here; it expands into useful extensions with extra scoring weight.
Examples: diet, dieted, ditto
TO-
TO- is the busiest finishing branch on the board, so save a dedicated pass for it after the pangrams.
Examples: toed, toffee, toot, tooted, tote, toted, toxified
TE-
TE- supports several compact accepted words and helps clean up the middle of the solve.
Examples: teed, teff, text, texted
Common Suffixes
-ted
This ending repeats across multiple stems and is one of the safest ways to turn a good find into extra points.
Examples: dieted, doted, edited, exited, feted, footed, texted, tooted
-ied
The -IED finish matters because it produces both a strong cleanup word and the board's shorter pangram.
Examples: tidied, toxified
-tie / -tied
The TIE base is worth checking in both bare and extended forms.
Examples: tied, tidied
Progressive Help
Pangram Hints
Start with the X lane
Both pangrams lean on the only uncommon outer letter. Build from a common six-letter health verb, then test whether it can take a past-tense ending.
Shorter pangram reveal
The easier pangram is an eight-letter word built from TOXI- plus a standard verb ending.
Reveal words: toxified
Longer pangram reveal
The longer pangram extends the DETOX branch all the way into a ten-letter past-tense form.
Reveal words: detoxified
Spoiler Control
Notable Words
- detoxifiedPangram
- toxifiedPangram
- detoxed7 pts
- dieted6 pts
- toffee6 pts
- dotted6 pts
- footie6 pts
- effete6 pts
- edited6 pts
- exited6 pts
Why these matter
- detoxified
DETOXIFIED is the ten-letter pangram and the biggest single scoring jump on the board.
- toxified
TOXIFIED is the faster pangram to spot, and it confirms that the uncommon X is central rather than decorative.
- detoxed
DETOXED is the bridge word that turns a simple base into the board's most lucrative family.
- dieted
DIETED shows how productive the past-tense pattern is; once you trust it, several other extensions become believable.
- toffee
TOFFEE is a high-value repeated-letter answer that makes the TO- branch worth a focused cleanup pass.
- dotted
DOTTED is a strong reminder that doubled T is active throughout the board, not just in one isolated word.
- footie
FOOTIE is one of the more surprising accepted entries and helps unlock the board's repeated-vowel comfort level.
- effete
EFFETE is the kind of awkward-looking accepted word that can separate a near-complete solve from a full cleanup.
Hard Finds
Tricky Accepted Words
- teff
TEFF is easy to doubt if you do not trust grain names, but it is source-verified and one of the board's sneakiest four-letter keeps.
- effete
EFFETE looks overstuffed with repeated E and F, which makes it a classic miss even after the letter set feels settled.
- footie
FOOTIE is a useful reminder that this hive accepts casual-looking repeated-vowel forms, not just textbook stems.
- fetid
FETID is short enough to skip, but it is one of the cleaner ways to prove the FE- lane before longer answers appear.
- toxified
TOXIFIED feels technical enough to second-guess, yet it is the easier pangram and a major scoring swing.
- detoxified
DETOXIFIED looks almost too long to trust on first pass, but this board really does reward the full extension.
Disputed Candidates
Plausible Rejections
- doit
DOIT fits the letters and the T-centered shape, but it is not in today's verified source set.
- otto
OTTO looks plausible because the board tolerates doubled letters, but the source list does not accept it today.
- titi
TITI reuses legal letters cleanly and resembles other short accepted forms, yet it is still outside the verified answer list.
- toff
TOFF feels close to the valid TO- cluster, which is why it survives the solver diff even though the source rejects it.
Answer Vault
All The Words You Need And A Few You Don't.
Trusted words are those you'll need to solve the puzzle. Disputed words are the ones we found in our dictionary that don't appear in the Spelling Bee's curated list. But we thought you might like to see them anyway.