Spelling Bee · Sunday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 18, 2022

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

Words42
Pangrams3
Points possible190
Center letterU
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 18, 2022·3 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.

TR
NUO
GA

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
16 pts
Good
29 pts
Solid
48 pts
Nice
76 pts
Great
95 pts
Amazing
133 pts
Genius
162 pts
Queen Bee
190 pts
Total words
42
Pangrams
3
Possible points
190

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
orangutan +16 ptsguarantor +16 ptsargonaut +15 pts

The full word list

All 42 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 18, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters17 words
auntauraautogoutguargurunounroutrungrunttauttourtouttunaturntutuunto
5 letters11 words
augurgauntgroutgruntguanooutgooutrotaunttrouttutoruntag
6 letters9 words
auroranougatoutgunoutranoutrunragoutrotgutrunouttruant
7 letters1 word
turnout
8 letters1 word
argonaut
9 letters2 words
guarantororangutan
10 letters1 word
gargantuan

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.

guarantor +16orangutan +16argonaut +15gargantuan +10turnout +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 18, 2022 has 42 valid words for a total of 190 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 162 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.