Spelling Bee · Sunday

Spelling Bee Answers for May 31, 2020

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

Words36
Pangrams1
Points possible137
Center letterL
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published May 31, 2020·3 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.

IB
DLN
AH

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
11 pts
Good
21 pts
Solid
35 pts
Nice
55 pts
Great
69 pts
Amazing
96 pts
Genius
117 pts
Queen Bee
137 pts
Total words
36
Pangrams
1
Possible points
137

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
handbill +15 pts

The full word list

All 36 valid Spelling Bee solutions for May 31, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters17 words
analbailbaldballbillblabblahblindialdillhailhallhilllaidlainlandnail
5 letters10 words
alibiannalbanalblandblindblinihalaliliadlabialanai
6 letters5 words
balladdahliainlaidinlandlabial
8 letters3 words
bilabialhandballhandbill
9 letters1 word
libidinal

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.

handbill +15libidinal +9bilabial +8handball +8ballad +6

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for May 31, 2020 has 36 valid words for a total of 137 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 117 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.