NYT Spelling Bee Statistics

Spelling Bee is a daily word game from NYT Games where players need to find as many words as possible from a set of seven letters. Each valid word must contain the yellow letter from the center tile at least once. Spelling Bee puzzles and answers update every day.

Spelling Bee is not as popular as Wordle and Connections in terms of volume of players but it has a very ardent fanbase that refers to themselves as the “Hivemind”.

Popularity of Spelling Bee

• Spelling Bee is played more than 440 million times per year
• This averages around 1.2 million plays per day
• Or 8.4 million plays per week
• The typical Spelling Bee game lasts 10 – 30 minutes
• Which means there is as much as 480 years of Spelling Bee played each week

Daily difficulty

• On an average day, the Spelling Bee has between 25 and 75 valid answers
• Most puzzles contain 1 or 2 pangrams
• 6 is the largest number of pangrams to have appeared in a single puzzle
• Pangrams result in 7 bonus points on top of the base points for each letter

Origins and upkeep of Spelling Bee

• Spelling Bee first appeared in print in the NY Times magazine on February 22, 2015
• The digital version we know today was debuted on May 9th, 2018
• Frank Longo – a famous puzzle creator and author of more than 200 puzzle books – is credited with creating Spelling Bee
• Spelling Bee is edited by Sam Ezersky, who also edits Letter Boxed contributed to the Times Crossword
• He has stated his intention never to use S in a puzzle but it has appeared twice – both times in 2025

Most common words to appear in Spelling Bee

Word	No. of Appearances
Noon	234
Loll	218
Toot	211
Naan	193
Nana	193
Lilt	154
Till	154
Tilt	154
Nene	153
Tint	146

* All data correct as of Feb 3, 2026 and cover 2,832 puzzles

Longest words to appear in Spelling Bee

The longest word ever to appear in Spelling Bee

• There has only ever been one 15 letter word that has appeared in Spelling Bee
• That was NATIONALIZATION when it appeared on January 8, 2024
• It was the only time that NATIONALIZATION has been a valid word

14 letter words in Spelling Bee

• There have been two 14 letter words in Spelling Bee – INCONVENIENCED and INITIALIZATION
  • INCONVENIENCED has shown up once – on October 21, 2022
  • INITIALIZATION was a word on January 8, 2024

13 letter words in Spelling Bee

• There have been 7 words that are 13 letters long in Spelling Bee, these are:
  • ANTICLIMACTIC – which has appeared 4 times (November 30, 2024; April 1, 2023; December 2, 2020; February 21, 2019)
  • ATTAINABILITY – 3 times (February 24, 2025; June 11, 2023; September 6, 2020)
  • CATALYTICALLY – 7 times (July 17, 202; April 25, 2025; June 6, 2024; January 14, 2024; February 17, 2020; April 6, 2019; September 27, 2018)
  • CLIMACTICALLY – twice (April 25, 2025; December 9, 2018)
  • DILLYDALLYING – once (November 11, 2025)
  • INCONVENIENCE – 3 times (December 28, 2024; October 21, 2022; January 22, 2021)
  • TANTALIZATION – once (January 8, 2024)

Word	Length
NATIONALIZATION	15
INCONVENIENCED	14
INITIALIZATION	14
ANTICLIMACTIC	13
ATTAINABILITY	13
CATALYTICALLY	13
CLIMACTICALLY	13
DILLYDALLYING	13
INCONVENIENCE	13
TANTALIZATION	13

* All data correct as of Feb 3, 2026 and cover 2,832 puzzles

Spelling Bee puzzles with most words

• The Spelling Bee puzzle with the most words was on June 8, 2019
  • The center letter was O and the surrounding letters were C, E, M, N, P, T
  • There were 81 words in this puzzle
  • Worth a total of 371 points
  • In total, there were 5 pangrams (COMPETENCE, COMPETENT, COMPONENT, CONTEMPT, NONCOMPETE)
  • The longest word was COMMENCEMENT at 12 letters long
  • COMPETENCE and NONCOMPETE were the highest scoring words worth 17 points each

Spelling Bee puzzles with fewest words

• The Spelling Bee puzzle with the fewest words was March 27, 2023
  • The center letter was F and the surrounding letters were I, M, O, R, T, Y
  • In total there was only 16 words in this puzzle
  • The longest words were FORTIFY and MORTIFY – each 7 letters long
  • MORTIFY was a perfect pangram – it uses every letter exactly once
  • MORTIFY was the only pangram in this puzzle
  • The puzzle was worth a total of 47 points

Odd occurrences in Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee games with no 4-letter words

• There has been one Spelling Bee puzzle with no four letter words
  • On October 18, 2021, the center letter was I and the surrounding letters were B, G, N, O, U, X
  • There were 27 words in total, including:
    • One 8 letter word
    • Nine 7 letter words
    • Eleven 6 letter words
    • Six 5 letter words
  • It is the only puzzle to date to contain no 4 letter words

Spelling Bee puzzles where all answers start with the same letter

• There have been two puzzles in Spelling Bee history where all valid words began with the same letter
  • On April 3, 2025, all words in the solution set began with the letter W
    • On this day, W was the center letter and the supporting letters were G, H, I, L, N, Y
    • In total there were 21 words all starting with the letter W
    • There was 1 pangram – WHININGLY
  • On July 4, 2024, all words in the solution began with the letter J
    •  On this day, J was the center letter and the supporting letters were G, I, L, N, O, Y
    • In total there were 18 words all starting with the letter J
    • There was 1 pangram – JOLLYING

Highest scoring Spelling Bee games

There have only ever been two Spelling Bee puzzles worth more than 500 points.

• January 22, 2021 is the highest scoring Spelling Bee puzzle ever with 537 points
  • On this day, I was the center letter and the supporting letters were C, E, N, O, T, V
  • In total there were 79 words in total
  • There was 7 pangrams – INCONVENIENT, CONNECTIVE, CONVECTION, CONVECTIVE, CONVENIENT, CONVENTION, EVICTION
• September 24, 2023 was the second highest scoring puzzle worth 506 points
  • On this day, M was the center letter and the supporting letters were A, G, I, N, R, T
  • In total there were 79 words in total
  • There was 5 pangrams – IMMIGRATING, MARINATING, IMMIGRANT, MIGRATING, MIGRANT (which is a perfect pangram)