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Spelling Bee Candidate Helper

Enter the seven letters in your Spelling Bee honeycomb, then type the yellow centre letter into the "Must contain" box. This tool finds ENABLE words that use only your seven letters and always include the centre letter. The NYT puzzle uses its own curated acceptance list, so not every candidate here will necessarily be accepted in-game.

A pangram uses every one of your seven letters at least once. Length alone doesn't prove a pangram — an 8-letter candidate can still repeat only four or five of the seven letters and miss the rest. Enable Uses all seven letters below the input to filter to true pangram candidates.

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

A pangram uses every one of your seven letters at least once and — because there are seven distinct letters — must therefore be 7 letters or longer. The reverse is not true: an 8-letter candidate can still repeat only four or five of the seven letters and miss the rest, so length alone is not a pangram test. Use the Pangrams only checkbox above the results to filter to candidates that actually contain all seven letters.

Verified examples from our dictionary — each pangram uses every letter of its set (centre letter shown in bold) and appears in the shipped word list. This list is checked at build time; if any example fails verification, the build fails.

  • Letters AEGINRT — pangrams: TEARING, GRANITE, INGRATE, TANGIER, AERATING.
  • Letters AEILNRT — pangrams: RELIANT, LATRINE, RETINAL, RATLINE.
  • Letters ADEGINR — pangrams: READING, GRAINED, GRADINE, DRAINAGE.
  • Letters AEIPRST — pangrams: PIRATES, PARTIES, PASTIER, TRAIPSE.

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 candidate helper use the centre letter?

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

Will every candidate be accepted in-game?

No. This tool searches our ENABLE English word list; the NYT Spelling Bee uses its own curated acceptance list, which excludes proper nouns, hyphens, obscure medical/scientific terms and offensive words. Some ENABLE candidates will not be accepted by the puzzle.

How do I find pangrams?

A pangram must satisfy three conditions at once: it uses only letters from the seven-letter set, it includes the yellow centre letter, and every one of the seven letters appears at least once. Length alone does not prove a pangram — an 8-letter word can still repeat only four or five of the seven letters. Enter all seven letters, put the centre letter in 'Must contain', and tick the 'Pangrams only' box to filter to true pangram candidates.

What's the 'Queen Bee' rank?

Finding every valid word the NYT accepts in the puzzle. Because NYT uses its own curated list, this candidate helper won't reveal every Queen Bee word — treat its output as ideas to try, not a guaranteed complete list.