Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 20, 2023

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

Words44
Pangrams3
Points possible192
Center letterE
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 20, 2023·3 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.

AL
OEC
BK

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
77 pts
Great
96 pts
Amazing
135 pts
Genius
164 pts
Queen Bee
192 pts
Total words
44
Pangrams
3
Possible points
192

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
blockable +16 ptscookable +15 ptslockable +15 pts

The full word list

All 44 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 20, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters20 words
ablealoebabebakebalebeakbeckbellcakecellcokekalekeellacelakeleakleeklobeoboeoleo
5 letters10 words
babelbellebleakblokeboccecablecelebcellokebablabel
6 letters7 words
allelebabblebobblecacklecobblecocklelocale
8 letters4 words
bookablecallablecookablelockable
9 letters3 words
allocableblockablecellblock

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.

blockable +16cookable +15lockable +15allocable +9cellblock +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 20, 2023 has 44 valid words for a total of 192 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 164 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.