Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 28, 2023

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

Words51
Pangrams1
Points possible218
Center letterA
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 28, 2023·3 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.

LY
GAU
EV

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
88 pts
Great
109 pts
Amazing
153 pts
Genius
186 pts
Queen Bee
218 pts
Total words
51
Pangrams
1
Possible points
218

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
vaguely +14 pts

The full word list

All 51 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 28, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters16 words
aguealgaallyeavegagagagegalagalegallgavelavalaveluauuveavaleveal
5 letters20 words
agavealgaealgalallayalleyeaglegaugegavelgaylyguavagulaglaggyleavelegaluvulavagalvaguevaluevalvevulva
6 letters11 words
allegeallelegagglegalleygavagelavageleagueuvulaevalleyvulvaevulval
7 letters3 words
legallyluggagevaguely
8 letters1 word
lallygag

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.

vaguely +14lallygag +8legally +7luggage +7allege +6

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 28, 2023 has 51 valid words for a total of 218 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 186 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.