Spelling Bee is the New York Times‘ daily word challenge that gives you seven letters and one simple rule: every word must contain the center letter.

Sounds easy enough, but words must also have at least four letters, and finding them all is trickier than it looks. The real prize is the pangram, a word using all seven letters, hiding in plain sight.

If today’s puzzle has you stuck, below are subtle hints to nudge you forward, plus the complete list of answers if you want to close it out.

Today’s Pangrams:

🔽 Show

Today’s Spelling Bee Answers:

🐝 How to Play the Spelling Bee Puzzle

• The puzzle features a honeycomb-shaped grid with seven letters, including a center letter highlighted in yellow.
• Your goal is to create as many valid English words as possible using the given letters.
• The center letter must be included in every word you form.
• Letters can be used more than once and arranged in any order.
• Each word must be at least four letters long — shorter words don’t count.
• Proper nouns, abbreviations, and offensive words aren’t accepted.
• All valid words are usually common English terms, according to the NYT.
• You earn points based on word length, with longer words giving you more points.
• Each day’s puzzle includes at least one pangram (a word that uses all seven letters).
• Pangrams are worth seven bonus points, plus the regular points for the word’s length. Some puzzles may include multiple pangrams.

Smart Tips for Solving the Spelling Bee Puzzle

Struggling to find those last few words? These tips will sharpen your strategy, expand your word list, and help you climb the ranks much quicker.

• Start with the obvious. Look for common prefixes and suffixes (like re-, un-, -ing,—ed) to quickly build easy 4 to 6-letter words.
• Focus on the center letter. Since every word must include the central letter, try writing down words that start or end with it to spark ideas.
• Look for the pangram early. Pangrams are worth extra points and can help unlock longer, hidden words. Try rearranging all seven letters to spot potential pangram combinations.
• Add letters to known words. Take a short, valid word and test if you can extend it with available letters (e.g., run → rung → grunge).
• Use letter repetition. You can reuse letters multiple times, so don’t be afraid to test out repeating ones like e, l, or t when they appear.
• Think of plural-sounding words that aren’t plurals. Since the letter S is excluded, challenge yourself to think beyond plurals and find singular alternatives.
• Change your perspective. If you get stuck, take a short break or say the letters out loud. A fresh angle often sparks new word ideas.
• Build words by themes. Try thinking in categories, such as body parts, emotions, kitchen items, verbs, etc. This helps trigger related vocabulary.
• Keep track of word endings. Many words end in -er, -ing, or -ly, so build off those patterns.
• Practice regularly. The more you play, the better you recognize patterns, prefixes, and rare pangrams.

Can’t get enough of those buzzing words? Browse our NYT Spelling Bee hub for pangrams, hints, and past daily puzzles.

See Also

In the new movie The Rivals of Amziah King, which opened in theaters last week, Matthew McConaughey plays the titular role of a beekeeper fighting against threats to his honey business. Big-name actors are often surrounded by a supporting cast. But in this case, McConaughey shares the screen with some tiny co-stars.

In fact, more than a million bees were used throughout the filming. And the bees’ success in the spotlight came thanks to thorough training from some Alabama beekeepers.

Though the movie takes place in Oklahoma, the film was shot in Alabama. Filmmakers reached out to Foxhound Bee Company in Irondale for advice on working with bees.

“The director Andrew Patterson did not want any of the cast to wear bee suits at all,” said Adam Hickman, Foxhound’s founder and lead beekeeper. “No gloves, no suits, no jackets, no veils, nothing.”

Although the crew would wear bee suits, the actors would have no protective clothing. The filmmakers had another big request.

“They wanted a promise that the bees are not going to sting,” Hickman said. “I was just like, ‘I cannot promise you that they aren’t going to sting.’ If I were having a golden retriever on set, I’d probably have a different answer.”

Bee boot camp

Hickman said working with more than a million bees without any of the usual safety equipment required professional guidance. So he organized a team of local beekeepers to train the cast and crew before production began. The beekeepers built an apiary with 34 colonies of bees for the movie set.

”Before we even had our first day of shooting, the camera guys, production team, they all came out to our bee yard and we suited up,” Hickman said. “The director was basically helping them understand how to shoot bees. How do bees respond when you open a hive and then also how do bees respond when you’ve been in the hive too long. There’s the yin and yang of opening a hive.”

Unlike a wasp or a hornet, Hickman said, honeybees don’t want to sting. That’s because they’ll die immediately. Bees will only sting when they feel threatened. With that in mind, the beekeepers taught the cast and crew how to interact calmly and confidently with the bees.

“The expectation is when you open a hive, it will act like a Looney Tunes cartoon,” Hickman said. “The cloud of bees will just shoot out of it and they’ll chase you down the street. But in reality, when you open a hive, they’re very calm. They notice you, but you can work in a way where you’re not interfering with them.”

After two weeks of training, the cast and crew felt comfortable working with the bees. And the bees went about their business.

For the most part.

”At the very, very end, we got done with training,” Hickman said. “We took off our veils and we stepped maybe 30 yards away and one bee, just one bee would not leave us alone and ended up stinging Matthew on his hairline. And it ended up swelling up half his face. And this is a day before we were gonna start shooting.”

The producers pushed the bee-heavy shoots to the end of filming to reduce the chance of more stings. But if any of the beekeeping training failed, there was a plan.

“Apparently my hands and arms looked like McConaughey’s, so they had a backup costume for me with his jewelry and his ring and his shirt,” Hickman said. “If everything went south, I was supposed to be like the hands guy.”

In the end, McConaughey performed each scene without a hitch. When the movie wrapped, there were only five bee stings through the entire production thanks to the preparation, training and advice from Hickman and his team.

Tricks of the beekeeping trade

One tactic the beekeepers used to manipulate the hives was to only have nurse bees.

“[It] is a very, very young bee that is only responsible for feeding the larva in the hive and taking care of the queen,” Hickman said. “So they are unlikely to sting.”

These nurse bees were also Italian honeybees. They’re the most common bee in the U.S. and known for their gentle demeanor.

The beekeepers kept a close eye on the weather because bees respond to changes in barometric pressure. Much like humans, changes in the weather can make bees irritable. Hickman said shoots were rescheduled if storms were in the forecast.

Another trick is using a smoker.

“When you open the hive, naturally they’re gonna set off alarm pheromones,” Hickman said. “And if you put smoke in the air it makes it harder for them to communicate with each other.”

The bees think their house is on fire, Hickman said. They gorge themselves on honey, basically packing their bags to leave. The actors put smoke on their hands to prevent bee stings.

One of the most impressive tricks happens in the last scene of the movie with actress Angelina LookingGlass: a “beekeeping beard.”

The beekeepers put the queen bee in a tiny plastic cage hidden on LookingGlass. They also sprayed her with bee pheromones. Soon, the colony smelled the queen’s pheromones and swarmed around her.

The result? LookingGlass covered in 10,000 bees from head to toe.

While the human actors may have received top billing in The Rivals of Amziah King, the bees certainly stole the show.

To learn more about Foxhound Bee Company, visit their website.

October baseball has a way of exposing teams’ weaknesses. For the Brewers, one of the biggest questions (as they steam toward the postseason) is what happens if Christian Yelich and William Contreras remain below-average hitters. Both players were expected to be major offensive contributors heading into the season, but if they can’t provide that production when the games matter most, the Brewers will have to find other ways to score enough runs to win. That puts significant pressure on the rest of the lineup to perform, especially the younger guys and the players farther down the batting order.

Even in the absence of offensive production from the two highest-paid position players, the lineup looks good at the top. Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and Jake Bauers are all having excellent seasons. Andrew Vaughn is, too, but would probably only appear high in the order against a lefty. Still, he could find crucial at-bats coming his way against right-handed pitching in October if Yelich and Contreras continue to struggle. 

So, the top of the order isn’t the main problem. It’s the depth of the lineup that must be questioned, if the postseason started today. Rookies Luis Lara and Cooper Pratt have performed admirably to this point, each having their own highlight moments—while struggling, too, as rookies do. They shouldn’t be heavily relied on in the postseason, because this will be their first taste of the playoffs. Yelich and Contreras, by contrast, have been there before and won games. Obviously, any production from the rookies is welcome and will be needed, but that doesn’t answer the question of whether the team can win without their top bats making noise.

If Yelich and Contreras remain poor at the plate, the Crew will need a step up from two hitters, in particular: Joey Ortiz and Sal Frelick. Ortiz struggled mightily last season, finishing with a slash line of .230/.276/.317. Those same struggles showed themselves again this season, as he possessed a .561 OPS through his first 170 plate appearances. June 16 is when things changed. Pratt was called up to play shortstop, and Ortiz shifted over to third base to replace Luis Rengifo, who was jettisoned. Since then, Ortiz boasts the second-highest OPS on the team, among players with at least 100 plate appearances during that stretch. It should be noted that his best stretch of play in the big leagues came in 2024, where he played third base primarily. Ortiz could be a key bat at the end of the order come October.

Frelick is a little harder to feel good about, in the short term. After putting up a good 2025 season (finishing with a .756 OPS), Frelick regressed this year. He’s slashing .236/.301/.330, with only 4 home runs, and has spent a long stint on the injured list with a shoulder injury. How much Frelick will play down the stretch will be intriguing, with Chourio, Lara, and Garrett Mitchell slated in the outfield most days. However, Frelick has postseason experience under his belt, and (like Ortiz) he has the potential to provide good at-bats at the bottom of the order when current players are struggling.

Despite all of this, it doesn’t seem likely that the Brewers will go far in the postseason without Yelich and Contreras performing up to expectations. They’ve performed very well so far this season without those two guys contributing regularly, but the offense has stuttered for stretches this year, and that can’t happen in October.

The real question is what they can do about it. Contreras will be in the lineup no matter what, as the starting catcher. He’s still a solid defender, and while Gary Sánchez has had a good year, he won’t be in the starting lineup unless a lefty is pitching for the opponent. Yelich may be a different story. Could they relegate their highest-paid player to the bench in the playoffs? It doesn’t seem like that will happen, but eventually, something has to give. Yelich is a designated hitter at this point of his career, and anyone can fill that spot. If he continues to struggle, Vaughn, Sánchez, or one of the other bench bats may find themselves in that spot come playoff time.

When Yelich and Contreras produce, the Brewers are a significantly better team. Will that happen by the end of the year? Who knows? But if it doesn’t, what do you think the Brewers should do about it?