Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for May 21, 2022

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

Words54
Pangrams1
Points possible243
Center letterF
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published May 21, 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.

BI
LFO
DE

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
20 pts
Good
37 pts
Solid
61 pts
Nice
98 pts
Great
122 pts
Amazing
171 pts
Genius
207 pts
Queen Bee
243 pts
Total words
54
Pangrams
1
Possible points
243

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
lifeblood +16 pts

The full word list

All 54 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 21, 2022, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters18 words
beefbiffdofffeedfeelfellfieffifefilefillfledfleefloefoilfoldfoodfoollife
5 letters9 words
boffofelidfieldfifedfiledfliedfloodfoliooffed
6 letters19 words
beefedbefellbeliefbiffedbifolddefieddefiledoffedfeeblefelledfibbedfiddlefilledfobbedfoiblefoiledfoldedfoodiefooled
7 letters6 words
defileddeifiededifiedfiddledfieldedflooded
8 letters1 word
billfold
9 letters1 word
lifeblood

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.

lifeblood +16billfold +8defiled +7deified +7edified +7

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 21, 2022 has 54 valid words for a total of 243 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 207 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.