Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 25, 2021

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

Words33
Pangrams1
Points possible159
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 25, 2021·3 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.

NV
EIT
CZ

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
13 pts
Good
24 pts
Solid
40 pts
Nice
64 pts
Great
80 pts
Amazing
112 pts
Genius
136 pts
Queen Bee
159 pts
Total words
33
Pangrams
1
Possible points
159

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
incentivize +18 pts

The full word list

All 33 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 25, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters12 words
citeniceninenitetinetintveinvicevinezinczineziti
5 letters6 words
civetcivicevictinnieniecetinct
6 letters6 words
enticeevinceinciteintentinventinvite
7 letters4 words
citizenevicteeinviteenetizen
8 letters1 word
nineteen
9 letters3 words
incentiveinvectiveinventive
11 letters1 word
incentivize

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.

incentivize +18incentive +9invective +9inventive +9nineteen +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 25, 2021 has 33 valid words for a total of 159 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 136 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.