Play Spelling Bee Online
Seven letters. One center letter you must use. Build words four letters or longer. Letters can repeat. Find the pangram that uses all seven and earn a seven-point bonus. Climb from Beginner to Queen Bee. Free, no downloads, no sign-up.
26 points to Good Start
How Spelling Bee Works
Seven letters sit in a honeycomb. Six surround one center letter. The center letter is required: every word you make must include it. The other six are optional but available.
Words must be four letters or longer. Three-letter words do not count. Letters can be reused as many times as you want. If the honeycomb has A, E, and T, you can spell EATEAT if it were a real word. (It is not. But ETA and EAT are too short.)
Each puzzle contains at least one pangram: a word that uses all seven letters. Finding it earns a seven-point bonus. Some puzzles have two or three pangrams. A perfect pangram uses each letter exactly once, which means it is exactly seven letters long.
Scoring and Ranks
Four-letter words are worth 1 point. Five-letter words are worth 5. Six-letter words are worth 6. The pattern is simple: 1 point per letter for words five and up, flat 1 point for four-letter words. A pangram gets 7 bonus points. A seven-letter pangram scores 14.
Your total score determines your rank. Ranks are percentage thresholds of the maximum possible score for that puzzle:
| Rank | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Beginner | 0% |
| Good Start | 2% |
| Moving Up | 5% |
| Good | 8% |
| Solid | 15% |
| Nice | 25% |
| Great | 40% |
| Amazing | 50% |
| Genius | 70% |
| Queen Bee | 100% |
Queen Bee means you found every valid word. Most players plateau around Solid or Nice. Genius is a real achievement. Queen Bee is rare.
Where Spelling Bee Came From
Frank Longo created the Spelling Bee puzzle following a proposal from Will Shortz, who was inspired by Polygon, a puzzle format popular in British newspapers. The print version debuted in The New York Times Magazine on February 22, 2015 as a weekly feature. The digital daily version launched on May 9, 2018 with Sam Ezersky as editor.
The cartoon bee mascot, Beeatrice, was designed by Robert Vinluan for the digital launch. The puzzle goes live at 3 AM Eastern Time every day. It was the first of five digital games created by the NYT Games team, followed by Tiles, Vertex, Letter Boxed, and Connections.
Strategy: Finding Words You Miss
Stuck? Try these systematic approaches.
Start with the pangram. Sam Ezersky, the NYT editor, says he always starts with the pangram because it is the linchpin. Look at all seven letters and ask: what word uses every one? Common suffixes help. If the letters include I, N, and G, try -ING endings. If you have E and D, try -ED.
Work suffixes systematically. Take each four-letter base you found and add common suffixes: -S, -ED, -ING, -ER, -ERS, -EST. If you found CHOSE, check CHOSES, CHOSEN, CHOOSER. Each suffix that produces a valid word is free points.
Shuffle the letters. Your brain anchors letters to spatial positions. A new arrangement breaks that fixation. Click shuffle and look again. Words that were invisible in the old layout often jump out.
Check plurals of everything. If you found a noun, add S. If the result is valid, that is another point. The word list includes many plurals that players overlook because they already found the singular.
Spelling Bee vs Other Word Games
| Game | Letters Reused? | Min Length | Center Letter? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spelling Bee | Yes, unlimited | 4 letters | Yes, required |
| Anagram Forge | No, once each | 3 letters | No |
| Word Hunt | No, once each | 3 letters | No |
| Lexle | N/A (guessing) | 5 letters | No |
The key difference: Spelling Bee lets you reuse letters. This means the same seven letters can produce words far longer than seven letters. Anagram Forge limits you to one use per tile, so the longest possible word is the number of tiles. Spelling Bee has no such ceiling.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Spelling Bee?
You get seven letters arranged in a honeycomb. One letter is in the center and must appear in every word. Make words four letters or longer using any of the seven letters. Letters can be reused as many times as needed. Each puzzle has at least one pangram that uses all seven letters.
How is Spelling Bee scored?
Four-letter words are worth 1 point. Words five letters or longer earn 1 point per letter. A five-letter word is worth 5 points. A six-letter word is worth 6. Finding a pangram (a word using all seven letters) earns 7 bonus points on top of the word length. A seven-letter pangram is worth 14 points total.
What are the Spelling Bee ranks?
Ranks are based on the percentage of total possible points you have earned. The ranks from lowest to highest are: Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing, Genius, and Queen Bee. Queen Bee means you have found every valid word in the puzzle.
Is this the same as the NYT Spelling Bee?
This game follows the same rules as the New York Times Spelling Bee, created by Frank Longo and launched digitally on May 9, 2018. The NYT version updates daily with a new puzzle. This version lets you play multiple puzzles and shuffle through them. The rules, scoring, and pangram bonus are identical.
What is a pangram in Spelling Bee?
A pangram is a word that uses all seven letters in the puzzle at least once. Every puzzle has at least one pangram. Finding one earns 7 bonus points. A perfect pangram uses each letter exactly once, which means it is exactly seven letters long.
Can letters be reused in Spelling Bee?
Yes. Unlike anagram games where each letter can only be used once, Spelling Bee lets you reuse letters freely. If the letters include A and T, you can spell ATTA, or even a longer word like ATTACK if the available letters allow it. This is what makes Spelling Bee different from anagram puzzles.
Ready to Play?
Scroll back up to the honeycomb and start typing. Click letters or use your keyboard. The center letter is required in every word. Find the pangram for a seven-point bonus. Climb the ranks from Beginner to Queen Bee.
Want more word games after your Spelling Bee session? Try Anagram Forge for a different letter-rearrangement challenge, or Lexle for a daily word-guessing puzzle. Need help finding words for Scrabble or crosswords? Browse our word tools.