Open today’s hive and the letters look almost too friendly — A, C, E, H, I, L, M. Nothing scary in that lineup. But friendly letters have a way of hiding a board that’s actually built on food words, a couple of medical terms, and more double letters than you’d guess just by staring at the grid. This is one of those puzzles where the early words come fast and then the last stretch toward Genius slows right down.
Here’s the full solution for June 22, 2026, the pangram, the words most people end up missing, and a couple of things worth trying if you’re chasing Queen Bee today.
Today’s Hive Overview
Center Letter: C
Letter Set: A, C, E, H, I, L, M
Today’s Pangram
There’s one pangram on today’s board.
CHEMICAL (15 points) — yes, the obvious one. It uses every letter in the hive, with the C doing double duty, so if you typed it in early, nice catch. If you didn’t, it’s one of those words that hides in plain sight because it just doesn’t look like a puzzle answer.
The Full Word List Today
Longest to shortest, here’s everything confirmed on today’s board.
8 Letters
- CHEMICAL – 15 points (pangram)
- CAMELLIA – 8 points
- HELIACAL – 8 points
7 Letters
- ACCLAIM – 7 points
- CHALICE – 7 points
- CHALLAH – 7 points
- HAMACHI – 7 points
- HELICAL – 7 points
6 Letters
- ACACIA – 6 points
- CELIAC – 6 points
- CHICHI – 6 points
- CHICLE – 6 points
- CLICHE – 6 points
- ICICLE – 6 points
- LAICAL – 6 points
- MALICE – 6 points
5 Letters
- CACHE – 5 points
- CALLA – 5 points
- CAMEL – 5 points
- CELLI – 5 points
- CHICA – 5 points
- CHILI – 5 points
- CHILL – 5 points
- CHIME – 5 points
- CILIA – 5 points
- CLAIM – 5 points
- CLIME – 5 points
- EMCEE – 5 points
- ILIAC – 5 points
- LEACH – 5 points
- LEECH – 5 points
- LILAC – 5 points
- MALIC – 5 points
- MECCA – 5 points
- MIMIC – 5 points
4 Letters
- ACAI – 1 point
- ACHE – 1 point
- ACME – 1 point
- CALL – 1 point
- CALM – 1 point
- CAME – 1 point
- CAMI – 1 point
- CELL – 1 point
- CHAI – 1 point
- CHIA – 1 point
- CHIC – 1 point
- CLAM – 1 point
- EACH – 1 point
- LACE – 1 point
- LAIC – 1 point
- LECH – 1 point
- LICE – 1 point
- MACE – 1 point
- MICA – 1 point
- MICE – 1 point
The Words People Keep Missing
A few of these are the actual reason your score stalls a few points short of Genius.
HELIACAL is the big one. It’s an astronomy term — used when a star rises or sets close to the sun — and almost nobody pulls it out of memory on a normal Tuesday morning. HAMACHI is the other curveball, borrowed straight from sushi menus, where it means yellowtail. It feels like it shouldn’t be allowed in a word game, but it is.
CHALLAH catches people who aren’t thinking about bread. EMCEE trips people up for the opposite reason — it looks like it can’t possibly need three E’s, but it does. And ICICLE versus CHICLE is a classic case of finding one and assuming you’ve already covered the other.
A Couple of Ways to Pick Up the Last Few Points
Almost every high-value word today starts with CH — chemical, chalice, challah, chichi, chicle, chili, chill, chime, chic, chai, chia. Once you find your first CH word, just keep running through the rest of the letters after it.
Don’t be afraid of doubled letters either. ACCLAIM, CHICHI, MIMIC, EMCEE — all of them need you to use a letter twice when your gut says once is enough.
And don’t talk yourself out of words just because they feel too specific or too “foreign” to count. HAMACHI and CHALLAH are exactly the kind of words people skip past, assuming the NYT wouldn’t include them. It does.
Yesterday’s Puzzle
Want to check what you missed last time? Here’s yesterday’s Spelling Bee answers.
=> V i r o l o g y
Other Puzzles Today
A Couple of Useful Links
You can play the puzzle directly on the New York Times Games site if you want your stats tracked properly. And if you’re curious where a word like heliacal or hamachi actually comes from, Merriam-Webster has the full breakdown.
This is today’s board — check back tomorrow once the new hive drops.
