Spelling Bee · Tuesday

Spelling Bee Answers for April 21, 2020

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

Words25
Pangrams1
Points possible97
Center letterD
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published April 21, 2020·3 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.

RA
IDL
BJ

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
8 pts
Good
15 pts
Solid
25 pts
Nice
39 pts
Great
49 pts
Amazing
68 pts
Genius
83 pts
Queen Bee
97 pts
Total words
25
Pangrams
1
Possible points
97

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
jailbird +15 pts

The full word list

All 25 valid Spelling Bee solutions for April 21, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters12 words
aridbaldbardbirdbraddialdilldrabdriblaidlardraid
5 letters6 words
braiddrilliliadrabidradarradii
6 letters4 words
balladbridalradialribald
8 letters3 words
billiardjailbirdrailbird

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.

jailbird +15billiard +8railbird +8ballad +6bridal +6

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for April 21, 2020 has 25 valid words for a total of 97 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 83 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.