Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for February 17, 2022

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

Words32
Pangrams1
Points possible161
Center letterY
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published February 17, 2022·3 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.

CL
IYA
BE

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
25 pts
Solid
41 pts
Nice
65 pts
Great
81 pts
Amazing
113 pts
Genius
137 pts
Queen Bee
161 pts
Total words
32
Pangrams
1
Possible points
161

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
celibacy +15 pts

The full word list

All 32 valid Spelling Bee solutions for February 17, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters9 words
ablyallybabyclayeelyillylacylilyyell
5 letters10 words
abbeyallayalleybelaybellybialybillycabbycycleicily
6 letters5 words
abbacyblabbycicelyclayeycyclic
7 letters3 words
acyclicbicycleeyeball
8 letters3 words
bicycliccelibacycyclical
10 letters2 words
biblicallycyclically

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.

celibacy +15biblically +10cyclically +10bicyclic +8cyclical +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for February 17, 2022 has 32 valid words for a total of 161 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 137 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.