Spelling Bee · Wednesday

Spelling Bee Answers for September 2, 2020

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

Words72
Pangrams2
Points possible338
Center letterB
Maya Chen
Senior Puzzle Editor·Published September 2, 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.

AN
DBO
EM

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
28 pts
Good
51 pts
Solid
85 pts
Nice
136 pts
Great
169 pts
Amazing
237 pts
Genius
288 pts
Queen Bee
338 pts
Total words
72
Pangrams
2
Possible points
338

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
bemoaned +15 ptsabdomen +14 pts

The full word list

All 72 valid Spelling Bee solutions for September 2, 2020, grouped by length. Pangrams are highlighted with a star.

Tap to reveal the full word list
4 letters22 words
abedbabababebadebandbanebeadbeambeanbeenbendbobabodebombbondboneboobboomboonebonnooboboe
5 letters15 words
abeamabodeadobeadoboamebabaaedbodedbombebonedbooedebbedembedmambamambonabob
6 letters24 words
amebaeamoebababoonbamboobananabandedbannedbaobabbeadedbeamedbeanedbeddedbemoanbobbedbombedbonbonbondedbonoboboobooboomeddabbeddebonemobbednabbed
7 letters6 words
abandonabdomenamoebaebandanadebonedmamboed
8 letters4 words
bandannabemoanedembeddedmoonbeam
9 letters1 word
abandoned

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.

bemoaned +15abdomen +14abandoned +9bandanna +8embedded +8

About this Spelling Bee puzzle

The New York Times Spelling Bee for September 2, 2020 has 72 valid words for a total of 338 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 288 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.