You’re staring at a hive of seven yellow and white hexagons. You've found "LOLLYGAG." You've found "GIGGLING." But for some reason, the word "GLOGG"—that delicious spiced wine you had over the holidays—is getting rejected. It's enough to make any word nerd throw their phone across the room. Honestly, the frustration is part of the charm. If you’ve ever wondered why certain NYT Spelling Bee words seem to be missing while obscure botanical terms are welcomed with open arms, you aren't alone.
It's a curated world.
Sam Ezersky, the digital puzzles editor at The New York Times, is the human gatekeeper of this daily obsession. Unlike a Scrabble dictionary or a standard Merriam-Webster collegiate edition, the Spelling Bee list is intentionally subjective. It’s meant to be a "common" vocabulary, though "common" is a word doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
The Secret Sauce Behind NYT Spelling Bee Words
Most people think the game runs on an automated dictionary script. It doesn't. If it did, the word lists would be five times longer and half as fun. Ezersky has noted in multiple interviews and on Twitter that he aims for a list that feels challenging but fair. He wants to avoid "junk" words.
What's junk? Think obscure chemical compounds, ultra-specific medical suffixes, or words that only exist in the 13th-century OED. But this creates a weird tension. You might find "ACACIA" but get blocked on "PHAT." One is a tree; the other is 90s slang that arguably has enough cultural staying power to be "common."
The criteria are basically: Is it in a standard dictionary? Is it widely known? Is it not a slur or overly offensive? Is it not a proper noun?
That last one is the kicker. Proper nouns are the bane of the Spelling Bee player's existence. You can’t use "ALABAMA." You can’t use "LONDON." But then you'll see a word like "PANAMA" (the hat, not the country) or "CHINA" (the plates, not the nation) and feel like the game is gaslighting you. It’s all about the lowercase usage. If the word can function as a common noun, it’s fair game.
The Pangram Hunt and the Genius Tier
Every hive has at least one pangram. This is the holy grail. It’s a word that uses every single letter in the hive at least once. Sometimes there are three. Sometimes there are five. Finding a pangram is a massive dopamine hit because it’s worth an extra seven points.
Points matter because of the "Genius" rank. To hit Genius, you usually need to reach about 70% of the total possible points for that day. But the real addicts—the ones who don't sleep—are aiming for "Queen Bee." This isn't even visible on the main progress bar until you hit it. You have to find every single word in the editor's list.
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Every. Single. One.
Why the Dictionary Feels "Wrong" Sometimes
Have you noticed how many "re-" words are missing? Or how "un-" prefixes are a total coin flip? This is the most controversial part of the NYT Spelling Bee words selection process. Ezersky often excludes words that are technically correct but feel "clunky."
"RELET" is a word. "UNETCHED" is a word. But do people say them? Rarely.
Then there's the "S" problem. You'll notice there is never an "S" in the Spelling Bee hive. Ever. Why? Because the "S" makes it too easy. You could just pluralize every single word and double your score without any actual brain power. By removing the "S," the game forces you to look for more complex structures: "-ING," "-ED," "-TION," and "-NESS."
Strategies for Those Stuck at "Great" or "Amazing"
Stop looking for big words. Seriously.
The biggest mistake players make is hunting for the seven-letter masterpieces while ignoring the four-letter bread and butter. In Spelling Bee, four-letter words are worth one point. Five-letter words and up are worth their length in points. While one point feels small, those little words are often what bridge the gap between "Amazing" and "Genius."
Look for prefixes and suffixes immediately.
- Is there a "D" and an "E"? Check for "-ED."
- Is there an "I," "N," and "G"? Spend five minutes just churning out "-ING" variants.
- Is there an "A," "L," and "L"? Look for "Y" to make "-ALLY."
Don't forget the "dark" words. These are the words that aren't common in speech but are staples of the NYT puzzle world. Words like "ALEE," "ETUI," or "XYLEM." If you play long enough, you start to build a specific Spelling Bee vocabulary that has almost nothing to do with how you talk to your barista.
The Community and the "Shunn" Factor
If you’re really struggling, there’s a whole ecosystem of help out there. The most famous is the "Spelling Bee Buddy" on the NYT site itself, which gives you hints about starting letters and word lengths. But for the hardcore players, there’s William Shunn’s website.
Shunn provides a grid. It tells you exactly how many words start with "BA" and are five letters long. It doesn't give you the word, but it gives you the shape of the puzzle. It turns the game into a process of elimination.
Some people call this cheating.
Others call it sanity.
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There's also a thriving community on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit where players commiserate over the "Word of the Day" that was rejected. The #SpellingBee hashtag is a graveyard of screenshots showing "Not in word list" for perfectly valid English. It’s a shared trauma. It’s also where Sam Ezersky occasionally pops in to defend his choices, which is always a treat to watch.
Actionable Tips for Mastery
To actually improve your daily standing and stop screaming at your screen, you need a system. Randomly poking at letters only gets you to "Solid."
- Rotation is King: Use the "shuffle" button constantly. Your brain gets locked into patterns based on the visual arrangement of the letters. Shuffling resets your neural pathways and helps you see "TEACH" where you previously only saw "CHEAT."
- The "Compound" Check: Look for two small words that can be smashed together. "BACK" and "DROP." "OUT" and "TAKE." These are easy points that people often overlook because they’re looking for Latin roots.
- The Spelling Bee "Vibe": Recognize that the game has a personality. It likes birds (NUTHATCH). It likes plants (ACACIA). It likes obscure fabrics (VOILE). It generally hates modern internet slang, though "TWEET" and "APP" have made it in.
- Check the "Yesterday" List: This is the best way to learn. Look at the words you missed yesterday. You’ll probably see three or four that you definitely knew but just couldn't conjure up. Study them. Those words will come back in a different hive next week.
The game is a test of your vocabulary, sure, but it's more a test of your persistence and your ability to think inside Sam Ezersky’s head. Once you accept that the list is a curated piece of art rather than a cold, hard dictionary, the game becomes a lot more fun. You start to anticipate the "NYT-isms" and spot those elusive pangrams before you've even found the three-letter basics.
Start your next session by ignoring the center letter for a moment and just identifying all the possible suffixes. Mapping the "grammatical landscape" of the hive before you start hunting for nouns will almost always fast-track you to Genius rank.