Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for February 29, 2020

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

Words54
Pangrams1
Points possible232
Center letterR
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published February 29, 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.

OT
ARY
LB

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
19 pts
Good
35 pts
Solid
58 pts
Nice
93 pts
Great
116 pts
Amazing
163 pts
Genius
198 pts
Queen Bee
232 pts
Total words
54
Pangrams
1
Possible points
232

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
laboratory +17 pts

The full word list

All 54 valid Spelling Bee solutions for February 29, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters19 words
artybarbboarboorbratbrayoralroarrollrootrototarotarttorotorttraytrottroytyro
5 letters17 words
abortaltaraortaarborarrayattarlaborlorryrallyrattyrobotrotorroyaltabortarottarrytroll
6 letters9 words
aortalarroyobrattyorallyoratorrattlyrotarytartartartly
7 letters7 words
oratoryratatatrollbarrotatorroyallyroyaltytoolbar
8 letters1 word
rotatory
10 letters1 word
laboratory

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.

laboratory +17rotatory +8oratory +7ratatat +7rollbar +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for February 29, 2020 has 54 valid words for a total of 232 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 198 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.