Spelling Bee · Friday

Spelling Bee Answers for May 28, 2021

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

Words68
Pangrams2
Points possible308
Center letterN
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published May 28, 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.

DE
PNA
HO

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
25 pts
Good
47 pts
Solid
77 pts
Nice
124 pts
Great
154 pts
Amazing
216 pts
Genius
262 pts
Queen Bee
308 pts
Total words
68
Pangrams
2
Possible points
308

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
openhanded +17 ptsheadphone +16 pts

The full word list

All 68 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 28, 2021, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters25 words
aeonanondeandonehandhonenaannadanananapeneapneedneneneonnodenonenoonnopeopenpanepeenpendpeonpondpone
5 letters13 words
anodeapneadoneeendedhennahonedodeonpaeanpandapanedpennephonephono
6 letters19 words
addendappenddaphnedeadendeependependdonnedenneadhandedhappennappedneedednoddedopenedpannedpeahenpendedpennedphoned
7 letters3 words
addendadeadpanhennaed
8 letters5 words
appendeddeadeneddeepeneddependedhappened
9 letters1 word
headphone
10 letters2 words
deadpannedopenhanded

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.

openhanded +17headphone +16deadpanned +10appended +8deadened +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 28, 2021 has 68 valid words for a total of 308 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 262 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.