Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for January 31, 2020

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

Words57
Pangrams2
Points possible257
Center letterL
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published January 31, 2020·3 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.

BA
CLK
IT

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
21 pts
Good
39 pts
Solid
65 pts
Nice
103 pts
Great
129 pts
Amazing
180 pts
Genius
219 pts
Queen Bee
257 pts
Total words
57
Pangrams
2
Possible points
257

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
tailback +15 ptsbacklit +14 pts

The full word list

All 57 valid Spelling Bee solutions for January 31, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters22 words
alitbailbalkballbilkbillblabblatcallkillkiltlacklaiclicklilttailtalctalitalktalltilltilt
5 letters14 words
alackalibiatiltblackcabalcallaciliaclackclickiliaclabialicitlilactabla
6 letters7 words
alkalicabalaitaliclabiallacticlaicaltibial
7 letters5 words
bacillibacklitcatcallcattailillicit
8 letters7 words
backtalkbiblicalbilabialcallbackkickballtacticaltailback
9 letters2 words
balalaikablackball

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.

tailback +15backlit +14balalaika +9blackball +9backtalk +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for January 31, 2020 has 57 valid words for a total of 257 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 219 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.