Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 28, 2021

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 possible273
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 28, 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.

IR
ACD
NG

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
22 pts
Good
41 pts
Solid
69 pts
Nice
110 pts
Great
137 pts
Amazing
192 pts
Genius
233 pts
Queen Bee
273 pts
Total words
46
Pangrams
2
Possible points
273

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
cardigan +15 ptscarding +14 pts

The full word list

All 46 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 28, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters5 words
acaiacidcardcragnarc
5 letters10 words
acingacridcairncanidcannacigarcircacirriicingricin
6 letters18 words
acaciaacidicarcanaarcingcagingcanardcancancandidcaningcaringcicadacraniadicingindicaniacinracingrancidricing
7 letters9 words
arcadiacadgingcanningcardiaccardingcraningdancinggracingindicia
8 letters3 words
arcadiancardigancringing
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.

cardigan +15carding +14circadian +9arcadian +8cringing +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 28, 2021 has 46 valid words for a total of 273 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 233 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.