A Spell Bee solver gives you hints, or the full answer list, for the seven letters in the day’s puzzle. This guide explains the rules, the scoring, how to reach Genius (70% of the day’s points) and why the game sometimes rejects a word you know is right.

What is the Spell Bee, and why is it so hard?

Seven letters. One sits in the middle. You need words of four letters or more, and every word must use that middle letter. It sounds easy, until you reach 40 points and the last few words refuse to show up.

The New York Times Spell Bee started in print on February 22, 2015 and went online on May 9, 2018. In 2023 the Times said millions of people play each week. That is a lot of people staring at the same hive, hunting for the same last word.

If you are stuck right now, the solver on this page can give you a nudge or the full list.

How does the Spell Bee work?

The puzzle shows a honeycomb of seven letters. Six sit around the edge and one sits in the centre. The rules are short:

• Every word needs at least four letters.
• Every word must include the centre letter.
• You can use any letter as many times as you like.
• Every puzzle hides at least one pangram, a word that uses all seven letters.

A new puzzle goes live every day at 3 a.m. Eastern Time. That is usually 8 a.m. UK time, or 7 a.m. for a few weeks a year when US and British clocks change on different dates.

Which words does the Spell Bee reject?

The editor decides which words count, and he rejects proper nouns and words he thinks are too obscure. Sam Ezersky, who has edited the game since the 2018 launch, put it this way in 2023: “One person’s personal wheelhouse is another person’s esoterica.” That is why a perfectly good word can still fail, and why players argue about the list every day.

Does the Spell Bee ever use the letter S?

In 2021, Ezersky said the puzzle would not use the letter S, because plurals make it too easy. He has made a few exceptions: March 12, 2025 (the 2,500th puzzle), September 2, 2025 and May 29, 2026. On any other day, you can skip plurals and “-s” endings.

How is the Spell Bee scored, and how many points is Genius?

Genius takes 70% of the day’s total points. Longer words earn more, and the scoring rules are simple:

• A four-letter word scores 1 point.
• A longer word scores 1 point per letter, so a five-letter word scores 5 and a six-letter word scores 6.
• A pangram earns 7 bonus points. A seven-letter pangram is worth 14 points in total.

Your rank depends on the share of the day’s total points that you collect.

Queen Bee means you found every word. Most players treat Genius as the real goal. Our solver shows the total points in the list, so you can multiply by 0.7 and see your Genius target.

What is a pangram, and how do you find one?

A pangram earns 7 bonus points on top of its length, so finding one early lifts your rank fast. Some puzzles hide more than one, and because letters can repeat, a pangram can run longer than seven letters.

Here are four ways to hunt for one:

1. Look for a common ending. Try -ing, -ed, -er, -ly and -ion against the letters. If the hive holds I, N and G, start there.
2. Place the awkward letters first. If the hive has a Q, X, Z or J, ask which words can hold it. Those letters narrow your options quickly.
3. Start with the vowels. Vowels hold words together. Write down the vowels in the hive, then test each consonant next to them.
4. Try a short word first, then grow it. Build “act” into “active” into “activity”. Long words often hide inside short ones.

If none of this works, run the solver at its lowest hint level. It tells you how many pangrams the puzzle has and how long each one is, without giving the word away.

How can you find more words?

Good players do not guess at random. They work through the hive in a set order. Try this routine:

• Sweep the endings. Test -ing, -ed, -er, -ly, -ness, -able and -ment against your letters. One good ending can open up many words.
• Sweep the beginnings. Try re-, un-, in-, out- and over- in front of every short word you already found.
• Go letter by letter. Take each outer letter in turn as the first letter and list every word you can build with it.
• Use double letters. The rules let you repeat letters, so words like “ball”, “mood” and “error” are fair game if the hive allows them.
• Shuffle the hive. The shuffle button reorders the letters. A new layout often shows a word that the old one hid.
• Walk away for ten minutes. Fresh eyes often spot a word you missed.

Short words matter too. A four-letter word earns only 1 point, but a puzzle usually has plenty of them, and they help you reach the longer words.

Want more practice with the same skills? Try our Blossom word game, or use the Blossom word finder when you need a hand.

Why does the game reject words like “colour”?

The Spell Bee comes from an American newspaper, and its word list leans American. You type “colour”, the game says no, and you wonder what you did wrong. You did nothing wrong. The list simply prefers “color”.

An American linguist living in Britain kept a public archive of British words the game rejected in April 2023. The archive appeared on the blog Separated by a Common Language. The author only listed words that are more common in British English than American, and checked the doubtful ones against usage data. The archive includes:

• “-our” spellings: armour, colour, favour, rumour
• “-ce” endings (American “-se”): defence, offence
• Other spelling differences: aluminium, fulfil, moult, anaemia
• Everyday British words: binman, layby, faff, choc

The author adds a fair warning: the game changes over time, and a word rejected then may be accepted now. Treat that archive as a guide, not a rulebook.

The idea came from a British puzzle. Will Shortz proposed the game, inspired by Polygon, a word-wheel puzzle in The Times. So this kind of puzzle is not new to British players. The trouble is the American word list.

What should you do when a word is rejected?

• Try the American spelling first if a British one fails. Swap “our” for “or”, and “ce” for “se” in words like “defence”.
• Do not take a rejected word as proof that it is wrong. The editor decides, and he has said the list can change.
• Remember that our solver uses British spellings. If you play the NYT puzzle, try the American spelling of any word the solver shows, such as “color” for “colour”.

How to use the Spell Bee Solver

The solver takes about ten seconds to set up.

1. Type the centre letter into the large pink circle.
2. Type the six outer letters, going clockwise from the top. You can also paste all seven letters into any box.
3. Pick a hint level.
4. Press Get hints.

The solver shows three numbers at the top: how many words it found, how many points they add up to, and how many pangrams the puzzle has (with their lengths). It only accepts seven different letters. If you enter the same letter twice, it tells you.

Five hint levels, from gentle to full

Start at the top and move down only when you must. Word lengths and first letters often give enough of a push to finish on your own, and that keeps the win yours. Whether to use hints at all is your call.

Does the solver match the game’s word list exactly?

No. The New York Times keeps its own word list, and the editor changes it. Our solver uses a separate list of about 31,000 words with British spellings. That causes three differences:

• Spellings. Our solver lists “colour”, “armour” and “centre”. The NYT game wants “color”, “armor” and “center”.
• Word length. Our list holds very few words longer than eight letters. The solver can miss long words and long pangrams, and its point totals can run lower than the game’s.
• Word choice. The solver may show a word the game does not accept, and the game may accept a word the solver lacks.