Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for March 17, 2021

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

Words27
Pangrams3
Points possible165
Center letterD
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published March 17, 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.

IN
GDA
TU

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
25 pts
Solid
42 pts
Nice
66 pts
Great
83 pts
Amazing
116 pts
Genius
141 pts
Queen Bee
165 pts
Total words
27
Pangrams
3
Possible points
165

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 3 pangrams
inundating +17 ptsauditing +15 ptsdaunting +15 pts

The full word list

All 27 valid Spelling Bee solutions for March 17, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters6 words
dangdatadingdintdungnada
5 letters5 words
auditdauntdigitnaiadundid
6 letters6 words
addingaidingdatingdiningdudingtiding
7 letters6 words
diggingdingingdunninggaddingguidingnudging
8 letters2 words
auditingdaunting
9 letters1 word
indignant
10 letters1 word
inundating

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.

inundating +17auditing +15daunting +15indignant +9digging +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for March 17, 2021 has 27 valid words for a total of 165 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 141 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.