Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 23, 2022

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

Words50
Pangrams1
Points possible217
Center letterH
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 23, 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.

NI
EHT
AL

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
18 pts
Good
33 pts
Solid
55 pts
Nice
87 pts
Great
109 pts
Amazing
152 pts
Genius
185 pts
Queen Bee
217 pts
Total words
50
Pangrams
1
Possible points
217

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
annihilate +17 pts

The full word list

All 50 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 23, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters19 words
hailhalehallhalthatehathhealheatheelhellhillhilthintlaththanthattheethenthin
5 letters15 words
halalhathaheathhennalathelitheneathninthteethtenththanethetathinetilthtithe
6 letters8 words
ethanehalitehealthheinieinhalelethaltahiniteethe
7 letters3 words
anthillathleteheathen
8 letters1 word
inhalant
9 letters1 word
ninetieth
10 letters3 words
annihilatenineteenthtelehealth

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.

annihilate +17nineteenth +10telehealth +10ninetieth +9inhalant +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 23, 2022 has 50 valid words for a total of 217 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 185 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.