Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for May 13, 2023

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

Words66
Pangrams2
Points possible356
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published May 13, 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.

DE
ACN
LH

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
29 pts
Good
54 pts
Solid
89 pts
Nice
143 pts
Great
178 pts
Amazing
250 pts
Genius
303 pts
Queen Bee
356 pts
Total words
66
Pangrams
2
Possible points
356

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
channeled +16 ptsdancehall +16 pts

The full word list

All 66 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 13, 2023, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters14 words
acedacheacnecallcanecedecellchadcladclandaceeachlacelech
5 letters17 words
achedcachecallacanalcanedcannacededcladecleandachadancedecalhencelacedlanceleachleech
6 letters14 words
accedecachedcalledcancancancelcandlecannedcelledchanceclenchdanceddecadeenlacelanced
7 letters13 words
accededcadencecandelachallahchancedchancelchannelcleanedenhanceenlacedleachedleechednacelle
8 letters4 words
canceledclenchedenhancedheadache
9 letters4 words
cancelledchanneleddancehalldecadence

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.

channeled +16dancehall +16cancelled +9decadence +9canceled +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 13, 2023 has 66 valid words for a total of 356 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 303 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.