Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 21, 2021

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

Words33
Pangrams1
Points possible130
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 21, 2021·3 min read

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

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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.

PA
LIT
UD

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
11 pts
Good
20 pts
Solid
33 pts
Nice
52 pts
Great
65 pts
Amazing
91 pts
Genius
111 pts
Queen Bee
130 pts
Total words
33
Pangrams
1
Possible points
130

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
plaudit +14 pts

The full word list

All 33 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 21, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters14 words
alitdialdilllaidliltpaidpailpillpitapulitailtalitilltilt
5 letters11 words
atiltauditlipidpipitplaidplaitpupiltidaltuliptuttiuplit
6 letters3 words
pallidpulpituptilt
7 letters4 words
papillapitapatplaudittilapia
8 letters1 word
palatial

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.

plaudit +14palatial +8papilla +7pitapat +7tilapia +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 21, 2021 has 33 valid words for a total of 130 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 111 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.

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Recent Spelling Bee puzzles

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