About Spelling Bee Solver
The New York Times Spelling Bee gives you seven letters in a hexagon with one in the middle. Every answer must be at least four letters long, may only use those seven letters, and must contain the centre letter. Letters can be reused as often as you like, which is why a seven-letter hive can hide hundreds of answers.
A word using all seven letters is a pangram, worth a large bonus. There is at least one in every puzzle, and finding it early is usually the difference between a good score and a great one. Your rank climbs from Beginner up to Genius as you score, and finding every single word earns Queen Bee.
How to use it
- 1
Enter the centre letter
Type the letter in the middle of the hive first. It is mandatory — every answer contains it, and it is the constraint that does most of the filtering.
- 2
Enter the six outer letters
Type the remaining six in any order. The hive's arrangement doesn't affect which words are legal.
- 3
Solve the hive
Results are grouped by length with pangrams highlighted, along with the total points available if you found everything.
Tips
Find the pangram first
Pangrams score seven bonus points on top of their length, so one pangram can be worth more than several ordinary words. They are listed separately at the top of the results.
Scoring
A four-letter word scores 1 point regardless of length — this is the rule people misremember. Every longer word scores one point per letter, and a pangram adds 7 on top. The solver totals this for you so you can see what a complete solve is worth.
Genius is not everything
Genius is a percentage of the day's total score, not a fixed number, so the points needed move daily. You can reach it without finding every word. Queen Bee is the one that requires all of them.
Don't wait for an S
The puzzle's editor avoids putting S in the hive, because it would make plurals trivial. There have been a handful of deliberate exceptions over the years, but if you are stuck hunting for a plural, that is usually why.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the Spelling Bee rules?
- Words must be four letters or longer, use only the seven letters shown, and include the centre letter. Letters may be repeated. A word using all seven letters is a pangram.
- How is Spelling Bee scored?
- Four-letter words are worth 1 point. Longer words score one point per letter. Pangrams earn an extra 7 points on top, so a seven-letter pangram is worth 14.
- Does a pangram have to be exactly seven letters?
- No. A pangram is any word using all seven letters at least once, so it can be longer. An eight-letter pangram scores 8 plus the 7-point bonus.
- What is the difference between Genius and Queen Bee?
- Genius is the top rank on the progress bar and is a percentage of the day's available points, so the score it needs changes daily and you can reach it without finding everything. Queen Bee means you found every word in the puzzle.
- Why does this find more words than the puzzle accepts?
- Every solver here reads the same 228,320-word English word list, built from the English Speller Database and ENABLE. It is broader than the list any individual puzzle accepts, so it will surface valid-but-obscure words your game may reject — and it is not any game's official dictionary, so occasionally the reverse happens too. The New York Times uses a smaller curated list, so treat obscure results as possibilities rather than guaranteed answers.
- Can letters be used more than once?
- Yes — that is a defining rule of Spelling Bee, and why words much longer than seven letters are possible.
- Is there always a pangram?
- Every official puzzle contains at least one, and some contain several. If the solver finds none, check that you entered all seven letters correctly.