Spelling Bee · Thursday

Spelling Bee Answers for May 12, 2022

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

Words39
Pangrams1
Points possible228
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published May 12, 2022·3 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
DCE
TJ

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
19 pts
Good
35 pts
Solid
57 pts
Nice
92 pts
Great
114 pts
Amazing
160 pts
Genius
194 pts
Queen Bee
228 pts
Total words
39
Pangrams
1
Possible points
228

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
injected +15 pts

The full word list

All 39 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 12, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters6 words
cedecentcitediceicednice
5 letters8 words
cededciteddeicedicededictejectniecetinct
6 letters10 words
deceitdecentdecidedeiceddejectdetectenticeinciteindictinject
7 letters6 words
decideddeicideeideticejectedenticedincited
8 letters8 words
decedentdejecteddetecteddieteticincidentindecentindictedinjected
9 letters1 word
incidence

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.

injected +15incidence +9decedent +8dejected +8detected +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 12, 2022 has 39 valid words for a total of 228 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 194 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.