Spelling Bee · Monday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 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.

Words21
Pangrams1
Points possible107
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 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.

AT
ICV
YP

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
9 pts
Good
17 pts
Solid
27 pts
Nice
43 pts
Great
54 pts
Amazing
75 pts
Genius
91 pts
Queen Bee
107 pts
Total words
21
Pangrams
1
Possible points
107

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
captivity +16 pts

The full word list

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

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters6 words
acaicavacitypactpicatact
5 letters6 words
atticcacticattyciviccivvytacit
6 letters4 words
acaciacavitypapacytactic
7 letters1 word
piccata
8 letters3 words
activitycapacityvivacity
9 letters1 word
captivity

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.

captivity +16activity +8capacity +8vivacity +8piccata +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 21, 2020 has 21 valid words for a total of 107 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 91 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.