Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for October 23, 2021

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

Words59
Pangrams3
Points possible304
Center letterA
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published October 23, 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.

DE
HAN
PI

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
25 pts
Good
46 pts
Solid
76 pts
Nice
122 pts
Great
152 pts
Amazing
213 pts
Genius
259 pts
Queen Bee
304 pts
Total words
59
Pangrams
3
Possible points
304

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 3 pangrams
pinheaded +16 ptspinhead +14 ptsheadpin +14 pts

The full word list

All 59 valid Spelling Bee solutions for October 23, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters17 words
aideapeddeaddeanhandheadheapideanaannadanananapeneappaidpainpanepapa
5 letters12 words
addedaheadaidedaphidapianapneahennainanenaiadpaeanpandapaned
6 letters16 words
addendappenddaphnedappeddeadenenneadhandedhappenheadedheapednappedpaddedpainedpaninipannedpeahen
7 letters7 words
addendaadeninedeadpanheadpinhennaednanniedpinhead
8 letters4 words
appendeddeadeneddeadheadhappened
9 letters1 word
pinheaded
10 letters2 words
deadheadeddeadpanned

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.

pinheaded +16headpin +14pinhead +14deadheaded +10deadpanned +10

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for October 23, 2021 has 59 valid words for a total of 304 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 259 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.