Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 21, 2023

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

Words42
Pangrams1
Points possible185
Center letterR
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 21, 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.

CI
ARD
NH

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
15 pts
Good
28 pts
Solid
47 pts
Nice
74 pts
Great
93 pts
Amazing
130 pts
Genius
158 pts
Queen Bee
185 pts
Total words
42
Pangrams
1
Possible points
185

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
arachnid +15 pts

The full word list

All 42 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 21, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters15 words
archariaaridcardchardarnhairhardnarcraidrainrandranirichrind
5 letters13 words
acridcairnchairchardcircacirridinardrainnadirradarradiiranchricin
6 letters6 words
arcanaarnicacanardcraniaradianrancid
7 letters3 words
arcadiaarchaiccardiac
8 letters4 words
anarchicarachnidarcadianharridan
9 letters1 word
circadian

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.

arachnid +15circadian +9anarchic +8arcadian +8harridan +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 21, 2023 has 42 valid words for a total of 185 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 158 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.