Spelling Bee · Tuesday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 19, 2021

The complete word list, every pangram, and the seven letters of the hive for today's NYT Spelling Bee. Hand-checked at release.

Words35
Pangrams1
Points possible167
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 19, 2021·3 min read

Hand-checked every word in this list against the live Spelling Bee on the morning of release. Spotted an error?

Share:

Today's seven letters

The center letter is yellow and must appear in every valid word. The six surrounding letters are optional. Every word in the puzzle is at least four letters long.

BA
LIK
CF

Stats & rank thresholds

The Spelling Bee scoring tops out at Queen Bee — the rank you earn for finding every word, including all pangrams. Here are today's point thresholds:

Beginner
0 pts
Moving Up
14 pts
Good
26 pts
Solid
42 pts
Nice
67 pts
Great
84 pts
Amazing
117 pts
Genius
142 pts
Queen Bee
167 pts
Total words
35
Pangrams
1
Possible points
167

Pangrams

A pangram uses all seven letters from today's hive at least once. Each pangram is worth its letter count + a 7-point bonus.

Today's 1 pangram
backfill +15 pts

The full word list

All 35 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 19, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters11 words
acaibailbiffbilkbillfailfillkickkilllaiclick
5 letters10 words
abacialibiciliaclickcliffflailflickiliaclabialilac
6 letters6 words
acaciaalkalifacialfiliallabiallaical
7 letters2 words
bacillibailiff
8 letters5 words
backfillbiblicalbilabialkickbackkickball
9 letters1 word
balalaika

Top-scoring words today

The five words worth the most points in today's puzzle — mostly pangrams and long compound words. These alone can push you over the Genius threshold.

backfill +15balalaika +9biblical +8bilabial +8kickback +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 19, 2021 has 35 valid words for a total of 167 possible points. Hitting Queen Bee means finding every single one. The Genius threshold is roughly 85 percent of the total, so today that's about 142 pts.

Stuck on a clue? Jump back to the Spelling Bee hub for strategy tips, the rank-by-rank breakdown, the full archive, and an explainer on how the NYT picks each day's seven letters.

Share:

Recent Spelling Bee puzzles

Catch up on the last week of Spelling Bees. Each link goes straight to that day's full word list.