Spelling Bee · Saturday

Spelling Bee Answers for October 3, 2020

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

Words52
Pangrams3
Points possible267
Center letterC
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published October 3, 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.

IM
BCE
LA

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
22 pts
Good
41 pts
Solid
67 pts
Nice
107 pts
Great
134 pts
Amazing
187 pts
Genius
227 pts
Queen Bee
267 pts
Total words
52
Pangrams
3
Possible points
267

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 3 pangrams
claimable +16 ptsclimbable +16 ptsamicable +15 pts

The full word list

All 52 valid Spelling Bee solutions for October 3, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters14 words
acaiacmecallcalmcamecamicellclamlacelaiclicemacemicamice
5 letters17 words
abacicabalcablecallacamelcelebcelliciliaclaimclimbclimeemceeiliaclilacmalicmeccamimic
6 letters11 words
acaciaamebicbecamecabalacabbieceliaciambiciciclelaicallimbicmalice
7 letters2 words
acclaimbacilli
8 letters5 words
amicablebiblicalcallablecamelliaimbecile
9 letters3 words
claimableclimbableimbecilic

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.

claimable +16climbable +16amicable +15imbecilic +9biblical +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for October 3, 2020 has 52 valid words for a total of 267 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 227 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.