Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 21, 2024

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

Words50
Pangrams2
Points possible288
Center letterU
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 21, 2024·3 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.

NF
OUD
EC

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
24 pts
Good
44 pts
Solid
72 pts
Nice
116 pts
Great
144 pts
Amazing
202 pts
Genius
245 pts
Queen Bee
288 pts
Total words
50
Pangrams
2
Possible points
288

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 2 pangrams
confounded +17 ptscofounded +16 pts

The full word list

All 50 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 21, 2024, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters11 words
cuedcuffdudeduffdunefeudfundnounnudeudonundo
5 letters9 words
deuceduncedunnoeduceenduefoundounceundueunfed
6 letters13 words
cuffeddeducedefunddenudedunnededucedenduedfecundfeudedfonduefundeduncuffundone
7 letters5 words
cofounddeduceddenudedfoundedunceded
8 letters6 words
confounddefundeddenounceuncuffedunfundedunneeded
9 letters3 words
cofoundeddenouncedunfounded
10 letters3 words
confoundedundefendedunoffended

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.

confounded +17cofounded +16undefended +10unoffended +10denounced +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 21, 2024 has 50 valid words for a total of 288 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 245 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.