Skip to content

Spelling Bee Solver

Enter the seven letters in your NYT Spelling Bee honeycomb, then type the yellow centre letter into the "Must contain" box. Every returned word uses only your seven letters and always contains the centre letter — exactly what the puzzle requires.

Any 7-letter (or longer) word using all seven letters is a pangram — worth big bonus points. Aim for at least one; every puzzle has one.

Enter all seven letters. Then type the centre letter in 'Must contain' below.

Options — narrow results
Loading dictionary…

How Spelling Bee scoring works

The NYT Spelling Bee awards 1 point for each 4-letter word and 1 point per letter for anything 5+ letters. Pangrams (words using all seven letters) score their letter count plus a 7-point bonus — so a 7-letter pangram is 14 points, an 8-letter pangram is 15, and so on.

Rank thresholds (Beginner, Amazing, Genius, Queen Bee) are calculated as percentages of the total possible score for that puzzle. Genius is roughly 70%, Queen Bee is 100%.

Finding pangrams

Pangrams are the puzzle's headline achievement. Set the length filter to 7 (the number of letters in your honeycomb) and every possible pangram appears at the top. If none appear at length 7, check length 8 — some puzzles have pangrams where a letter appears twice.

Popular pangram letter sets: AEGNRST (STARGATE-family), AEILNRT (RATLINE, RETINAL), AEHINPR (HAIRPIN), and AEIMORS (MASONRY-like). If your letters map onto a common one, you can often guess the pangram before running the solver.

Words the NYT doesn't accept

Our dictionary is broader than the NYT's, so a handful of solver results won't count in-game. The NYT rejects:

  • Proper nouns (names, brands, geography).
  • Hyphenated words and multi-word entries.
  • Very obscure or archaic words — the NYT's editor Sam Ezersky curates for the general reader.
  • Offensive language and slurs.
  • Some regional variants (British spellings sometimes count, sometimes don't).

If you type a candidate the game rejects, don't spend time debating it — the NYT list is the source of truth, not us.

Speed strategy — hitting Genius without a solver

Once you can see the seven letters, hunt in this order for the fastest Genius-tier score:

  1. 4-letter words with the centre letter. These are the easy points.
  2. Common prefixes and suffixes. RE-, UN-, -ING, -IEST, -ED anchor whole families.
  3. Compound-like combos. Two shorter familiar chunks joined together (like OUTPLAY, TAILWIND).
  4. Pangram hunt. Rearrange the seven letters mentally into common shapes.

Related

FAQs

How does NYT Spelling Bee work?

You get seven letters arranged in a honeycomb. Form as many words as possible (4+ letters) using only those seven letters. Every word MUST include the yellow centre letter. Using all seven letters in a single word is a 'pangram' and worth bonus points.

How does the solver use the centre letter?

Enter all seven letters in the letters box, then type the centre letter into the 'Must contain' box. Every returned word will include it.

What counts as a valid word?

The NYT uses a curated dictionary that excludes proper nouns, hyphens, obscure medical/scientific terms, and offensive words. Some entries in our broader dictionary won't be accepted in-game — check with a trial submission.

How do I find pangrams?

Set 'Length' to 7 (or higher if letters repeat) and every word using every letter appears. Most puzzles have at least one pangram; some have more.

What's the 'Queen Bee' rank?

Finding every valid word in the puzzle. It's an enormous list — often 50+ words — and even seasoned players rarely hit it without help.