Word games / Spelling Bee Seven letters in a honeycomb, one of them mandatory in every word, and a scoring ladder that runs from Beginner to Genius.
Publisher The New York Times
Cost A handful of words free daily; the full puzzle needs an NYT Games subscription
How often One puzzle a day
Time 10 minutes to all day — it is designed to be returned to Build words of at least four letters from the seven shown. Every word must include the centre letter. Letters can be reused as often as you like. Longer words score more; a pangram uses all seven letters and scores a bonus. Your score climbs named ranks, ending at Genius and then Queen Bee for every word. No fixed end — you can keep finding words all day Rewards vocabulary breadth rather than a single lucky guess Finding the pangram is the best feeling in daily word games Ranks give a sense of progress rather than pass or fail The full puzzle is paywalled, unlike Wordle and Connections The accepted word list is idiosyncratic and rejects plenty of real words Open-ended play makes it easy to lose half an hour without noticing Genius is achievable; Queen Bee usually requires a word list Skip Spelling Bee if: Anyone who wants a defined finish, or who resents a puzzle rejecting words they know are real
Is Spelling Bee free? Only partially. A small number of words each day are free; reaching the higher ranks requires an NYT Games subscription.
What is a pangram in Spelling Bee? A word using all seven of the day's letters at least once. Every puzzle has at least one, and finding it gives a substantial score bonus.
What is the minimum word length in Spelling Bee? Four letters, and every word must contain the centre letter of the honeycomb.
What does Queen Bee mean? Finding every accepted word in the puzzle — a rank beyond Genius that most players reach only with outside help.
Meldle is a different daily puzzle — four words sharing one missing pair of letters. Try today’s → It’s free, needs no account, and here is what it does badly .
