Spelling Bee

About Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee is a word puzzle from The New York Times. Frank Longo created it after a suggestion from Will Shortz, who had in mind a letter puzzle from British newspapers. It ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine from February 2015, and a daily digital version with a new scoring system went live on May 9, 2018, edited by Sam Ezersky. The bee mascot on the game's icon is called Beeatrice.

Each puzzle shows seven letters in a ring of hexagons, with one letter in the centre. You type or tap out words of at least four letters, and every word has to include the centre letter. Letters can be reused as often as you like. A four-letter word earns one point, longer words earn a point per letter, and a pangram, a word that uses all seven letters, earns seven extra points. As your score grows you move up a ladder of ranks such as Solid, Amazing and Genius, and finding every word on the list earns the title Queen Bee.

The word list is curated, so obscure words and proper nouns are left out, and the puzzle almost never includes the letter S, which keeps plurals out of the game. That curation is part of the appeal and part of the daily debate: players compare scores and argue about missing words online, and a number of hint sites track each day's hive.

Since August 2025 the free version only lets you find a few words before asking for a subscription, so the full puzzle is for Times Games or All Access subscribers. It suits people who like anagrams and long, unhurried sessions where you return to the same seven letters through the day.

How to play Spelling Bee

1. Look at the seven letters in the honeycomb and note the one in the centre.
2. Type or tap letters to spell a word of four or more letters that includes the centre letter.
3. Press Enter to submit the word; valid words are added to your list and score.
4. Reuse any letter as many times as you need within a word.
5. Hunt for the pangram, a word that uses all seven letters, for bonus points.
6. Keep finding words to climb the ranks toward Genius and, if you find them all, Queen Bee.

Tips

• Use the shuffle button to rearrange the outer letters; a new layout often shows words you missed.
• Try common endings like -ING, -ED and -ER when the letters allow them.
• Once you find a word, look for its relatives: add a prefix, change the tense or swap the ending.
• Look for the pangram early, since it is worth the most points in the puzzle.
• If a word you know is refused, it may be on the excluded list; move on rather than trying spellings.

Questions