Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for February 12, 2020

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

Words55
Pangrams1
Points possible222
Center letterT
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published February 12, 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.

DA
RTB
OY

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
34 pts
Solid
56 pts
Nice
89 pts
Great
111 pts
Amazing
156 pts
Genius
189 pts
Queen Bee
222 pts
Total words
55
Pangrams
1
Possible points
222

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
boatyard +15 pts

The full word list

All 55 valid Spelling Bee solutions for February 12, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters21 words
artyboatbootbratdartdatadratoatyrootrototarotarttoadtoottorotorttraytrodtrottroytyro
5 letters20 words
abbotabortaortaattarbattybootydottyrattyrobotrotortabbytabootabortardytarottarrytattytoadytodaytoddy
6 letters8 words
batboybrattydotardoratorrotarytabardtartartattoo
7 letters3 words
oratoryratatatrotator
8 letters2 words
boatyardrotatory
9 letters1 word
dartboard

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.

boatyard +15dartboard +9rotatory +8oratory +7ratatat +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for February 12, 2020 has 55 valid words for a total of 222 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 189 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.