Spelling Bee · Sunday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 16, 2022

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

Words21
Pangrams2
Points possible127
Center letterH
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 16, 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.

UN
EHD
CK

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
11 pts
Good
20 pts
Solid
32 pts
Nice
51 pts
Great
64 pts
Amazing
89 pts
Genius
108 pts
Queen Bee
127 pts
Total words
21
Pangrams
2
Possible points
127

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
unchecked +16 ptschunked +14 pts

The full word list

All 21 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 16, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters4 words
heckheedhuedhunk
5 letters6 words
checkcheekchuckchunkhencehunch
6 letters2 words
eunuchheeded
7 letters6 words
checkedchuckedchunkedhunchednunchukuncheck
8 letters2 words
nunchuckunheeded
9 letters1 word
unchecked

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.

unchecked +16chunked +14nunchuck +8unheeded +8checked +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 16, 2022 has 21 valid words for a total of 127 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 108 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.