Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for December 31, 2020

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

Words65
Pangrams2
Points possible313
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published December 31, 2020·3 min read

Hand-checked every word in this list against the live Spelling Bee on the morning of release. Spotted an error?

Share:

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.

NO
LIE
TH

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
26 pts
Good
47 pts
Solid
79 pts
Nice
126 pts
Great
157 pts
Amazing
220 pts
Genius
267 pts
Queen Bee
313 pts
Total words
65
Pangrams
2
Possible points
313

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
hotline +14 ptsneolith +14 pts

The full word list

All 65 valid Spelling Bee solutions for December 31, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters21 words
hillhilthintintolienliltlinelintlionliteloinnineniteoliothintiletilltilttinetinttoil
5 letters15 words
eliteinletinnieintellinenlithelithoninthollieonionthinetilthtithetitletoile
6 letters15 words
eolithheiniehottieintentintonelentillintellittleloonielotionnotiononlinetittletoilettoonie
7 letters7 words
entitlehellionhotlinelenientleonineneolithtontine
8 letters2 words
nineteentoilette
9 letters3 words
intentionninetiethnonillion
10 letters1 word
nineteenth
11 letters1 word
nonillionth

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.

hotline +14neolith +14nonillionth +11nineteenth +10intention +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for December 31, 2020 has 65 valid words for a total of 313 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 267 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.

Share:

Recent Spelling Bee puzzles

Catch up on the last week of Spelling Bees. Each link goes straight to that day's full word list.