Spelling Bee · Tuesday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 12, 2021

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

Words31
Pangrams2
Points possible144
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 12, 2021·3 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.

CH
LIO
RG

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
12 pts
Good
22 pts
Solid
36 pts
Nice
58 pts
Great
72 pts
Amazing
101 pts
Genius
123 pts
Queen Bee
144 pts
Total words
31
Pangrams
2
Possible points
144

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
horologic +16 ptschoirgirl +16 pts

The full word list

All 31 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 12, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters11 words
chiccoilgillgirlhighhilllocioliorichrillroil
5 letters13 words
chilichillchoircirricoccicoliccorgicrocigrillichorigloologicrigor
6 letters2 words
chichigigolo
7 letters2 words
chloricillogic
9 letters2 words
choirgirlhorologic
10 letters1 word
chocoholic

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.

choirgirl +16horologic +16chocoholic +10chloric +7illogic +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 12, 2021 has 31 valid words for a total of 144 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 123 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.