Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for October 20, 2021

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

Words57
Pangrams2
Points possible239
Center letterA
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published October 20, 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.

MC
DAI
TO

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
20 pts
Good
36 pts
Solid
60 pts
Nice
96 pts
Great
120 pts
Amazing
168 pts
Genius
204 pts
Queen Bee
239 pts
Total words
57
Pangrams
2
Possible points
239

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 2 pangrams
idiomatic +16 ptsdiatomic +15 pts

The full word list

All 57 valid Spelling Bee solutions for October 20, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters23 words
acaiacidamidammoatomcamicamociaocoatcocacodacomadataimamiotamaidmaimmamamicamoattacotacttoad
5 letters14 words
admitatticcacaocacticoactcoaticocoacommadictamadammammamommaoctadtacit
6 letters14 words
acaciaacidicaddictatomiccicadadammitdiatomdidactdoodadtactictatamitattootomatotomcat
7 letters2 words
macadamtoccata
8 letters2 words
diatomicdidactic
9 letters2 words
idiomaticmacadamia

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.

idiomatic +16diatomic +15macadamia +9didactic +8macadam +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for October 20, 2021 has 57 valid words for a total of 239 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 204 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.