Spelling Bee · Tuesday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 3, 2023

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

Words40
Pangrams1
Points possible168
Center letterA
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 3, 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.

RB
IAT
YU

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
14 pts
Good
26 pts
Solid
42 pts
Nice
68 pts
Great
84 pts
Amazing
118 pts
Genius
143 pts
Queen Bee
168 pts
Total words
40
Pangrams
1
Possible points
168

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
tributary +16 pts

The full word list

All 40 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 3, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters15 words
abutairyariaartyaurababababybaitbarbbratbraytarttauttraytuba
5 letters15 words
arrayatriaattarbattybriarbubbarabbiraitarattytabbytarrytattytiaratibiatrait
6 letters5 words
brattybriaryrabbitraritytartar
7 letters2 words
burrataratatat
9 letters3 words
arbitrarybarbaritytributary

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.

tributary +16arbitrary +9barbarity +9burrata +7ratatat +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 3, 2023 has 40 valid words for a total of 168 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 143 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.