Today's letters are below. The center letter, H, must be in every word.
Happy Spelling Bee day! With H in the middle and A, B, C, E, L, and T around it, this set has a tidy, classic feel with plenty of room to hunt.
65 words · 310 points · 3 pangrams
Hint 1: Word grid (first letter by word length)
How many words start with each letter, by length.
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 5 |
| B | 3 | 6 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 10 |
| C | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 11 |
| E | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| H | 9 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | 19 |
| L | 2 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 7 |
| T | 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 11 |
Hint 2: Two-letter starts
AC-1 · AT-4 · BA-4 · BE-3 · BL-3 · CA-5 · CH-6 · EA-1 · ET-1 · HA-10 · HE-9 · LA-3 · LE-4 · TA-1 · TE-6 · TH-4
Hint 3: Pangram first letters
A (10 letters), C (9 letters), T (9 letters)
Show the pangrams
ATTACHABLE, CATCHABLE, TEACHABLE
Show all 65 answers
A ache, athlete, attach, attachable, attache
B baht, batch, bath, bathe, beach, beech, belch, blah, bleach, blech
C cache, cachet, catch, catchable, catchall, chalet, challah, chat, chattel, cheat, cheetah
E each, etch
H halal, hale, hall, halt, hatch, hatchet, hate, hateable, hath, hatha, heal, healable, health, heat, heatable, heath, heel, hell, hellcat
L latch, lath, lathe, leach, lech, leech, lethal
T tach, teach, teachable, tech, teeth, teethe, telehealth, that, thatch, thee, theta
Pangrams are in bold.
Spelling Bee deep dive
More about today's puzzle. Everything in this section can include the answer.
Ranks and point targets
Today's puzzle is worth 310 points in total. These are the usual rank targets, worked out as a share of the total.
| Rank | Points |
|---|---|
| Beginner | 0 |
| Good Start | 6 |
| Moving Up | 16 |
| Good | 25 |
| Solid | 47 |
| Nice | 78 |
| Great | 124 |
| Amazing | 155 |
| Genius | 217 |
| Queen Bee | 310 |
Longest words (spoiler)
The longest answers are ATTACHABLE, TELEHEALTH, at 10 letters.
What every answer means (spoiler)
- ache: (intransitive, stative) To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued...
- athlete: (US, Canada) A person who actively participates in physical sports, especially with great skill; ...
- attach: (transitive) To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).
- attachable: Able to be attached.
- attache: Alternative form of attaché. [A diplomatic officer, usually one who plays a specific role.]
- baht: The official currency of Thailand, equal to 100 satang.
- batch: The quantity of bread or other baked goods baked at one time.
- bath: The act of bathing; an instance of this; the taking of a bath.
- bathe: (intransitive) To clean oneself by immersion in water or using water; to take a bath, have a bath.
- beach: The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly.
- beech: The wood of the beech tree.
- belch: (ambitransitive, immunology) To expel (gas) from the stomach through the mouth; especially, to do...
- blah: (uncountable, informal) Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
- bleach: (uncountable) A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of s...
- blech: (slang) To have the vomiting reflex triggered.
- cache: (computing) A fast temporary storage where recently or frequently used information is stored to a...
- cachet: (figurative) A special characteristic or quality; prestige, especially via association.
- catch: (countable) The act of seizing or capturing.
- catchable: That can be caught.
- catchall: Alternative form of catch-all. [Any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately ...
- chalet: An alpine style of wooden building with a sloping roof and overhanging eaves.
- challah: (countable) A traditional bread eaten by Ashkenazi Jews, usually braided for the Sabbath and roun...
- chat: To be engaged in informal conversation.
- chattel: Tangible, movable property.
- cheat: (intransitive) To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation.
- cheetah: (zoology) A distinctive member (Acinonyx jubatus) of the cat family, slightly smaller than the le...
- each: Individually; separately; used in a sentence with a plural subject to indicate that the action or...
- etch: (figuratively) To make a lasting impression.
- halal: (specifically, of food) Fit to eat according to Muslim religious customs.
- hale: (dated) Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired.
- hall: A large meeting room.
- halt: (intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently.
- hatch: A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
- hatchet: A small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk.
- hate: (transitive) To dislike intensely or greatly.
- hateable: Alternative form of hatable. [Capable of, suitable for, or deserving being hated; detestable.]
- hath: Alternative form of hauth (“unit of measure”). [(India, obsolete) An obsolete measure, a cubit, e...
- hatha: (yoga) The fundamental form of yoga that focuses on asanas
- heal: (transitive) To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.
- healable: Receptive to treatment or cure.
- health: The state of being free from physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction; wellness.
- heat: (uncountable) Thermal energy.
- heatable: Capable of being heated.
- heath: A tract of level uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation; heathland.
- heel: (anatomy) The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.
- hell: (in many religions, uncountable) A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go ...
- hellcat: A spiteful and violent person, especially a woman.
- latch: A fastening for a door that has a bar that fits into a notch or slot, and is lifted by a lever or...
- lath: A thin, narrow strip, fastened to the rafters, studs, or floor beams of a building, for the purpo...
- lathe: (tools, metalworking, woodworking) A machine tool used to shape a piece of material, or workpiece...
- leach: (transitive) To purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid.
- lech: (slang) A lecher.
- leech: An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
- lethal: Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
- tach: (medicine, colloquial) Tachycardia.
- teach: (ditransitive) To pass on knowledge to.
- teachable: Capable of being taught; apt to learn.
- tech: (informal) Technology.
- teeth: Dated spelling of teethe (“to grow teeth”).
- teethe: (intransitive) To bite on something to relieve discomfort caused by growing teeth.
- telehealth: Healthcare facilitated by telecommunication technology, typically allowing a doctor or other heal...
- that: (degree) To a given extent or degree.
- thatch: Straw, rushes, or similar, used for making or covering the roofs of buildings, or of stacks of ha...
- thee: (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun thee.
- theta: The eighth letter of the Modern Greek alphabet, ninth in Old Greek: Θ, θ.
Play today's Spelling Bee at The New York Times
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