Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 3, 2020

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

Words34
Pangrams1
Points possible112
Center letterE
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 3, 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.

AL
VEI
YH

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
9 pts
Good
17 pts
Solid
28 pts
Nice
45 pts
Great
56 pts
Amazing
79 pts
Genius
96 pts
Queen Bee
112 pts
Total words
34
Pangrams
1
Possible points
112

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
heavily +14 pts

The full word list

All 34 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 3, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters18 words
eaveeelyevilhalehavehealheelhellhivelavelevylivevalevealveilvileyeahyell
5 letters10 words
alivealleyhalveheaveheavyhelveleaveleveelevelvalve
6 letters5 words
alleleevillylivelyvalleyvilely
7 letters1 word
heavily

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.

heavily +14allele +6evilly +6lively +6valley +6

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 3, 2020 has 34 valid words for a total of 112 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 96 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.