Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 18, 2023

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

Words46
Pangrams2
Points possible226
Center letterI
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 18, 2023·3 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.

LE
GIA
YT

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
34 pts
Solid
57 pts
Nice
91 pts
Great
113 pts
Amazing
159 pts
Genius
193 pts
Queen Bee
226 pts
Total words
46
Pangrams
2
Possible points
226

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
illegality +17 ptslegality +15 pts

The full word list

All 46 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 18, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters16 words
alitgaitgillgiltgliaillyittyliltlilylitetailtalitiletilltiltyeti
5 letters10 words
agileagitaatiltelitegailylaitylegitliegetaigatitle
6 letters8 words
gaietygelatigigglegigglyligatelittletallittittle
7 letters5 words
agilelyagilityagitateillegaltillage
8 letters3 words
legalitylitigatetailgate
9 letters2 words
illegallytitillate
10 letters1 word
illegality
11 letters1 word
tagliatelle

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.

illegality +17legality +15tagliatelle +11illegally +9titillate +9

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 18, 2023 has 46 valid words for a total of 226 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 193 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.