Spelling Bee · Tuesday

Spelling Bee Answers for March 23, 2021

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

Words59
Pangrams3
Points possible342
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published March 23, 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.

EL
TCA
BI

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
28 pts
Good
52 pts
Solid
86 pts
Nice
137 pts
Great
171 pts
Amazing
240 pts
Genius
291 pts
Queen Bee
342 pts
Total words
59
Pangrams
3
Possible points
342

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
celibate +15 ptsballetic +15 ptscitable +14 pts

The full word list

All 59 valid Spelling Bee solutions for March 23, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters9 words
acaicallcellcitelacelaiclicetacttalc
5 letters17 words
abaciatticcabalcablecacticallacelebcelliciliacleateclatelectiliaclicitlilactacettacit
6 letters13 words
acaciaacetalaceticcabalacabbiecattleceliaceliciticicleitaliclacticlaicaltactic
7 letters12 words
acetatebacillicalcitecatcallcattailcitableelecteeillicitlactatelacteallatticetactile
8 letters7 words
balleticbiblicalcallablecelibateciabattaeclectictactical
9 letters1 word
electable

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.

balletic +15celibate +15citable +14electable +9biblical +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for March 23, 2021 has 59 valid words for a total of 342 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 291 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.