How to use data validation to only allow certain words to be entered in a range of cells

Question

I am trying to restrict a range of cells in a single column so that you can only enter specific words, so for example in this column I only want them to be able to enter "Accepted", "Open", "New", etc.

The range of words I want the column allow exist elsewhere on the sheet, in a key at the bottom. I don't know is that's helpful at all, if I can refer to that cell range as the allowed values or something.

Answer 1

Use the list option, and instead of entering the list like

Accepted,Open,New

use, for example:

=A100:A120

Use your actual list range.

Answer 2

This worked perfectly. thank you! I was definitely trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be