Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for October 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.

Words48
Pangrams1
Points possible210
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published October 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.

LV
DIT
YA

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
17 pts
Good
32 pts
Solid
53 pts
Nice
84 pts
Great
105 pts
Amazing
147 pts
Genius
179 pts
Queen Bee
210 pts
Total words
48
Pangrams
1
Possible points
210

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
validity +15 pts

The full word list

All 48 valid Spelling Bee solutions for October 21, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters18 words
alitaviddialdilldivaidlyidylillyittylaidliltlilytailtalitidytilltiltvial
5 letters14 words
atiltavaildailydillydittydivvyidylllaitylividtidalvalidvillavitalvivid
6 letters4 words
avidlydaylitdiddlytidily
7 letters7 words
aviditydaylilylividlytidallyvalidlyvitallyvividly
8 letters4 words
lividityvalidityvitalityvividity
10 letters1 word
dillydally

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.

validity +15dillydally +10lividity +8vitality +8vividity +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for October 21, 2021 has 48 valid words for a total of 210 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 179 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.