Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 25, 2020

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

Words27
Pangrams2
Points possible130
Center letterY
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 25, 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.

DO
RYA
NI

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
11 pts
Good
20 pts
Solid
33 pts
Nice
52 pts
Great
65 pts
Amazing
91 pts
Genius
111 pts
Queen Bee
130 pts
Total words
27
Pangrams
2
Possible points
130

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
ordinary +15 ptsnondairy +15 pts

The full word list

All 27 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 25, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters8 words
airydorydraydyadnaryyardyarnyond
5 letters13 words
annoyarraydaddydairydandydiarydryadironynannyninnyrainyrandyrayon
6 letters2 words
arroyooniony
7 letters1 word
noonday
8 letters3 words
dooryardnondairyordinary

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.

nondairy +15ordinary +15dooryard +8noonday +7arroyo +6

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 25, 2020 has 27 valid words for a total of 130 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 111 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.