Spelling Bees of Special Interest
Here are details on several Spelling Bees of special interest to Bee solvers. Updated whenever we discover something or receive a tip from an alert reader.
The Spelling Bee of 2025-04-01: April Fool’s Day Edition
On April Fool’s Day 2025, the Spelling Bee editor pranked the solving community with a clever trick.
About three quarters of all Spelling Bees are repeats of earlier puzzles, using recycled letter sets and pangrams, though with different center letters, thus yielding unique (albeit similar) puzzles. (LexiConnexxions tracks these on a monthly and annual basis, as reported HERE.)
Most players don't notice this repetition because the related puzzles are typically separated by a year or more. (Only very rarely have there been actual duplicate Bees, as reported HERE.)
On April 1, 2025, however, the Bee used the same letter set and pangram (ECHOING) that had been used in the Bee just a few days earlier, on March 30. The joke, of course, was the meta pun riffing on the meaning of the pangram, which implies an almost exact duplication or return of something. And in retrospect, the pangram on March 31, COMEBACK, was a clue to the repetition on April 1. Sharp-eyed players who reached Genius level noticed that Beeatrice had donned a new chapeau for the occasion, as shown at right. (See a collection of Beeatrice’s different looks HERE.)
About three quarters of all Spelling Bees are repeats of earlier puzzles, using recycled letter sets and pangrams, though with different center letters, thus yielding unique (albeit similar) puzzles. (LexiConnexxions tracks these on a monthly and annual basis, as reported HERE.)
Most players don't notice this repetition because the related puzzles are typically separated by a year or more. (Only very rarely have there been actual duplicate Bees, as reported HERE.)
On April 1, 2025, however, the Bee used the same letter set and pangram (ECHOING) that had been used in the Bee just a few days earlier, on March 30. The joke, of course, was the meta pun riffing on the meaning of the pangram, which implies an almost exact duplication or return of something. And in retrospect, the pangram on March 31, COMEBACK, was a clue to the repetition on April 1. Sharp-eyed players who reached Genius level noticed that Beeatrice had donned a new chapeau for the occasion, as shown at right. (See a collection of Beeatrice’s different looks HERE.)
The Spelling Bee of 2024-08-11: The pangram was spelled out on the official Hints page
On August 11, 2024, Bee solvers who checked the official Spelling Bee Hints for the day’s Spelling Bee found an unusual sight:
The letter set array spelled out one of the day’s pangrams, BACKLOT. (The other pangram was BOOTBLACK.)
This was the first time that this had happened in Bee history.
The letter set array on the Hints page is always formatted in the same way: Center letter (in bold), followed by the other six letters in alphabetical order. The information on the Hint page conformed exactly to this pattern; it just happened to spell out one of the pangrams.
This was the first time that this had happened in Bee history.
The letter set array on the Hints page is always formatted in the same way: Center letter (in bold), followed by the other six letters in alphabetical order. The information on the Hint page conformed exactly to this pattern; it just happened to spell out one of the pangrams.
Once in a great while, the letter set array hints strongly at the pangram, as in these examples:
CHIKORY (pangram HICKORY) September 29 2020 LADNRUY (pangram LAUNDRY) November 6 2021 ACHNOVY (pangram ANCHOVY) February 3 2022 FACILTY (pangram FACILITY) June 29 2022
There are very few like these in Bee history, perhaps a half dozen, but not until the Bee of August 11, 2024 had a full pangram been perfectly spelled out in the letter set array.
CHIKORY (pangram HICKORY) September 29 2020 LADNRUY (pangram LAUNDRY) November 6 2021 ACHNOVY (pangram ANCHOVY) February 3 2022 FACILTY (pangram FACILITY) June 29 2022
There are very few like these in Bee history, perhaps a half dozen, but not until the Bee of August 11, 2024 had a full pangram been perfectly spelled out in the letter set array.
The Spelling Bee of 2024-08-09: Center letter Z and just 16 words
With center letter Z and just 16 words, the Spelling Bee puzzle of 2024-08-09 was among the most interesting in Bee history. Here’s why:
1 – Rare use of center letter Z: The Spelling Bee of August 9, 2024 marked just the 6th time that Z had been selected as the center letter. (The last time was on November 5, 2022.) By contrast, the most frequently-used center letters (O, A, L, and T) have been used about 200 times each.
2 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: The Bee of August 9, 2024 was one of the two shortest ever, having only 16 words. Only one other Bee has had so few words (March 27, 2023). So, this Bee ties for first place, in terms of fewest words. Most Spelling Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.
3 – One of the longest Bee words: The longest word in this puzzle(ANTAGONZING) was 12 letters long; it is one of just 42 12-letter words in the Bee lexicon of nearly 10,300 words. Only nine Bee words have 13 or more letters; thus, the 12-letter word in this puzzle tied (as of this date) for 10th place in terms of word length.
1 – Rare use of center letter Z: The Spelling Bee of August 9, 2024 marked just the 6th time that Z had been selected as the center letter. (The last time was on November 5, 2022.) By contrast, the most frequently-used center letters (O, A, L, and T) have been used about 200 times each.
2 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: The Bee of August 9, 2024 was one of the two shortest ever, having only 16 words. Only one other Bee has had so few words (March 27, 2023). So, this Bee ties for first place, in terms of fewest words. Most Spelling Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.
3 – One of the longest Bee words: The longest word in this puzzle(ANTAGONZING) was 12 letters long; it is one of just 42 12-letter words in the Bee lexicon of nearly 10,300 words. Only nine Bee words have 13 or more letters; thus, the 12-letter word in this puzzle tied (as of this date) for 10th place in terms of word length.
SOLUTION SET FOR SPELLING BEE 2024-08-09AGONIZINGANTAGONIZING [12 letters long]GAZING GONZOIONIZATIONIONIZINGOOZINGZAGGINGZIGGINGZIGZAGZIGZAGGINGZINGZINGINGZINNIAZITIZONING
The Spelling Bee of 2024-07-04: Center letter J and just 18 words
With center letter J and just 18 words, the Spelling Bee puzzle of 2024-07-04 was among the most interesting in Bee history. Here’s why:
1 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: This puzzle was among the shortest of Spelling Bees ever. Of the 2,255 Bees that had been offered as of July 4, 2024, there had been only one Bee with 16 words, two with 17 words, and six with 18 words, including the Bee of July 4. (Most Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.)
2 – First time for center letter J: This puzzle was the first time in Spelling Bee history that J had been selected as the center letter.
3 – Unique solution set: All the words in the solution set (shown below) started with the same letter (J) and that one letter was also the center letter (J). This may have been the only time in Bee history that this set of conditions coincided.
4 – More than half the solution set were new words: Ten new words made their Spelling Bee débuts on July 4, which meant that more than half the words in the solution set (10 of 18) were new. The ten new words, all of which began with J, increased the number of Bee words that begin with J from 59 to 69, an instant increase of 17%.
1 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: This puzzle was among the shortest of Spelling Bees ever. Of the 2,255 Bees that had been offered as of July 4, 2024, there had been only one Bee with 16 words, two with 17 words, and six with 18 words, including the Bee of July 4. (Most Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.)
2 – First time for center letter J: This puzzle was the first time in Spelling Bee history that J had been selected as the center letter.
3 – Unique solution set: All the words in the solution set (shown below) started with the same letter (J) and that one letter was also the center letter (J). This may have been the only time in Bee history that this set of conditions coincided.
4 – More than half the solution set were new words: Ten new words made their Spelling Bee débuts on July 4, which meant that more than half the words in the solution set (10 of 18) were new. The ten new words, all of which began with J, increased the number of Bee words that begin with J from 59 to 69, an instant increase of 17%.
SOLUTION SET FOR SPELLING BEE 2024-07-04JIGGINGJIGGLINGJIGGLYJIGGYJILLIONJINGLINGJINGLYJINGOJINNJINNIJOGGINGJOGGLINGJOINJOININGJOLLILYJOLLYJOLLYINGJOYING
The Spelling Bee of 2024-03-25: The solution word "BINGO" was spelled out on the official Hints page
The Spelling Bee of March 25, 2024 was unique for a very interesting reason.
First, some context.
In Spelling Bee lingo, the term "BINGO" means that each of the seven letters is used to start at least one word in the day’s word list. It is a characteristic of some, but not all, Bee puzzles. (Click HERE to learn more about BINGO.) A BINGO "indicator" is given in the puzzle data that's published at the top of the official Hints page, as explained HERE.
As an English word, BINGO appears in the Spelling Bee from time to time.
On March 25, for the first time in Spelling Bee history, the word “BINGO” appeared in a Spelling Bee puzzle that happened to be “BINGO” puzzle. The word had appeared in six Bees before that date, but none of those earlier puzzles had been a BINGO puzzle. The puzzle data from the Hints page for March 25, 2024 is shown at right.
Of course, the official Hints page includes other words that show up in the Spelling Bee puzzle from time to time — WORD, POINT, FORUM, GRID — but given that BINGO is both a less common word and more particular to the Spelling Bee than the other words, the co-incidence of the word BINGO with the BINGO puzzle was interesting. (The word PANGRAM has not yet appeared in a Spelling Bee.)
First, some context.
In Spelling Bee lingo, the term "BINGO" means that each of the seven letters is used to start at least one word in the day’s word list. It is a characteristic of some, but not all, Bee puzzles. (Click HERE to learn more about BINGO.) A BINGO "indicator" is given in the puzzle data that's published at the top of the official Hints page, as explained HERE.
As an English word, BINGO appears in the Spelling Bee from time to time.
On March 25, for the first time in Spelling Bee history, the word “BINGO” appeared in a Spelling Bee puzzle that happened to be “BINGO” puzzle. The word had appeared in six Bees before that date, but none of those earlier puzzles had been a BINGO puzzle. The puzzle data from the Hints page for March 25, 2024 is shown at right.
Of course, the official Hints page includes other words that show up in the Spelling Bee puzzle from time to time — WORD, POINT, FORUM, GRID — but given that BINGO is both a less common word and more particular to the Spelling Bee than the other words, the co-incidence of the word BINGO with the BINGO puzzle was interesting. (The word PANGRAM has not yet appeared in a Spelling Bee.)
The Spelling Bee of 2024-01-16: Pangram Previously Disallowed
The Bee of 2024-01-16 may be unique in Spelling Bee history because, though it re-used a letter set from a previous puzzle, it did not have the same pangram(s).
The vast majority of Spelling Bees use recycled letter sets (as reported HERE for 2024), and though different center letters are almost always used, the pangram(s) remain the same.
The letter set for the Bee of 2024-01-16 was C E I K L N T, with center letter C, and the two pangrams were LITTLENECK and TEKEKINETIC.
The letter set for the Bee of 2023-06-03 was N C E I K L T, with center letter N, but the only pangram allowed for that day’s puzzle was TELEKINETIC; LITTLENECK was specifically disallowed.
In nearly all instances, recycled letter sets that have multiple pangrams will feature the same set of pangrams in each iteration. But because LITTLENECK had been disallowed from the earlier puzzle, the Bee of 2024-01-16 was the first time that LITTLENECK and TELEKINETIC had appeared together, and in fact, LITTLENECK made its début that day.
The vast majority of Spelling Bees use recycled letter sets (as reported HERE for 2024), and though different center letters are almost always used, the pangram(s) remain the same.
The letter set for the Bee of 2024-01-16 was C E I K L N T, with center letter C, and the two pangrams were LITTLENECK and TEKEKINETIC.
The letter set for the Bee of 2023-06-03 was N C E I K L T, with center letter N, but the only pangram allowed for that day’s puzzle was TELEKINETIC; LITTLENECK was specifically disallowed.
In nearly all instances, recycled letter sets that have multiple pangrams will feature the same set of pangrams in each iteration. But because LITTLENECK had been disallowed from the earlier puzzle, the Bee of 2024-01-16 was the first time that LITTLENECK and TELEKINETIC had appeared together, and in fact, LITTLENECK made its début that day.
The Spelling Bee of 2023-12-02: Grid and 2LL Did Not Match the Puzzle
On very rare occasions, there’s a mistake in the puzzle data – the game stats, two-letter list, and grid – that are published on the official daily Hints page (the daily Spelling Bee article).
On Saturday, December 2, 2023, the puzzle data indicated that the Bee that day had 43 words and 249 points, as shown in the image at right. The grid and two-letter list (2LL) hinted that there was one word that began with the letters HA. In fact, the Bee that had been published (as usual) at 3AM ET had 42 words and 242 points, and there was no word that began with H. Players were able to solve to Queen Bee with 42 words, but many noticed the inconsistency, and there was a great deal of speculation in the Spelling Bee forum, beginning immediately after the puzzle dropped.
Around 1:40 PM ET, a notice appeared on the Hints page as follows: “NOTE: An earlier version of this forum stated [that] today’s Spelling Bee can be solved with 249 points and an HA word. It is possible to solve today’s Spelling Bee with 242 points and without the HA word due to a bug in our puzzle publishing tool.” But the puzzle data was not updated, and many players were still confused, especially as the Spelling Bee Buddy had not been adjusted to accommodate the change.
On Saturday, December 2, 2023, the puzzle data indicated that the Bee that day had 43 words and 249 points, as shown in the image at right. The grid and two-letter list (2LL) hinted that there was one word that began with the letters HA. In fact, the Bee that had been published (as usual) at 3AM ET had 42 words and 242 points, and there was no word that began with H. Players were able to solve to Queen Bee with 42 words, but many noticed the inconsistency, and there was a great deal of speculation in the Spelling Bee forum, beginning immediately after the puzzle dropped.
Around 1:40 PM ET, a notice appeared on the Hints page as follows: “NOTE: An earlier version of this forum stated [that] today’s Spelling Bee can be solved with 249 points and an HA word. It is possible to solve today’s Spelling Bee with 242 points and without the HA word due to a bug in our puzzle publishing tool.” But the puzzle data was not updated, and many players were still confused, especially as the Spelling Bee Buddy had not been adjusted to accommodate the change.
At 2:07 PM ET, the notice was replaced by this one: “NOTE: The previous bug that omitted the HA word from today’s Spelling Bee has been resolved. Today’s Spelling Bee can be solved with 249 points and an HA word.” This indicated that the puzzle had been edited to add the 43rd word, the one that began with HA-.
The grid was updated, but as shown at right, the update disturbed the formatting so significantly as to render the grid pretty much unusable.
Another unfortunate consequence of the mid-day addition of that HA- word was that any player who had already solved the first version of the puzzle with 42 words was demoted from Queen Bee back to Genius. No notification was given about this, and while some players discovered the situation and immediately reported it to the forum, many others did not discover the fact until the next day, and winning streaks were broken for untold numbers of players. Players who learned of it soon enough were able to return to the puzzle, add the 43rd word, and reach Queen Bee.
LexiConnexxions alerted sbsolver.com to the situation early in the day, and they made necessary revisions to their page for this puzzle.
Another unfortunate consequence of the mid-day addition of that HA- word was that any player who had already solved the first version of the puzzle with 42 words was demoted from Queen Bee back to Genius. No notification was given about this, and while some players discovered the situation and immediately reported it to the forum, many others did not discover the fact until the next day, and winning streaks were broken for untold numbers of players. Players who learned of it soon enough were able to return to the puzzle, add the 43rd word, and reach Queen Bee.
LexiConnexxions alerted sbsolver.com to the situation early in the day, and they made necessary revisions to their page for this puzzle.
The Spelling Bee of 2023-11-17: Center letter Q and just 19 words
With center letter Q and just 19 words, the Spelling Bee puzzle of 2023-11-17 was among the most interesting in Bee history. Here’s why:
1 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: Of the 2,020 Spelling Bee puzzles that had been offered as of November 17, 2023, there had been only six Bees with 19 words (including the November 17 puzzle), five with 18 words, two with 17 words, and one with just 16 words. Most Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.)
2 – More than half the solution set were new words: Ten new words made their Spelling Bee débuts in this puzzle, which meant that more than half the words in the solution set (10 of 19) were new. This would be most likely to occur in a very short game.
3 – First time for center letter Q: This puzzle was the first time in Bee history that Q had been selected as the center letter, and that caused a little ripple deep within the Bee lexicon. Here’s why: It is often the case that a preponderance of words in the solution set will begin with the center letter (especially when the center letter is a consonant). That was true with this puzzle, with 14 of the 19 words beginning with Q, including five of the ten début words. Here’s the ripple: Before this puzzle, the Bee lexicon contained only 31 words that begin with Q. The five new Q words in the November 17 puzzle brought that total to 36, an instant increase of 14%.
1 – One of the shortest Bee puzzles: Of the 2,020 Spelling Bee puzzles that had been offered as of November 17, 2023, there had been only six Bees with 19 words (including the November 17 puzzle), five with 18 words, two with 17 words, and one with just 16 words. Most Bees have, on average, 40-45 words.)
2 – More than half the solution set were new words: Ten new words made their Spelling Bee débuts in this puzzle, which meant that more than half the words in the solution set (10 of 19) were new. This would be most likely to occur in a very short game.
3 – First time for center letter Q: This puzzle was the first time in Bee history that Q had been selected as the center letter, and that caused a little ripple deep within the Bee lexicon. Here’s why: It is often the case that a preponderance of words in the solution set will begin with the center letter (especially when the center letter is a consonant). That was true with this puzzle, with 14 of the 19 words beginning with Q, including five of the ten début words. Here’s the ripple: Before this puzzle, the Bee lexicon contained only 31 words that begin with Q. The five new Q words in the November 17 puzzle brought that total to 36, an instant increase of 14%.
SOLUTION SET FOR SPELLING BEE 2023-11-17EQUINEETIQUETTENETIQUETTEQUEENQUEENINGQUEUEQUEUEINGQUEUINGQUIETQUIETENQUIETINGQUININEQUINTQUINTETQUITQUITEQUITTINGUNIQUEUNQUIET
Spelling Bees of 2022-02-11 and 2025-03-31: Two Related Pairs of Variant Spellings
The Spelling Bees of February 11, 2022 and March 31, 2025 were interesting for a unique reason.
The Spelling Bee lexicon has long included these pairs of related words:
AMEBA / AMEBAE AMOEBA / AMOEBAE
These are the American and British spellings, respectively, of the singular and plural forms of the familiar single-celled organism.
Each of these words has appeared in the Spelling Bee pretty often, always in pairs, of course. But only twice have all four of these related words appeared in the same Bee puzzle: on February 11, 2022 and March 31, 2025.
The Spelling Bee lexicon has long included these pairs of related words:
AMEBA / AMEBAE AMOEBA / AMOEBAE
These are the American and British spellings, respectively, of the singular and plural forms of the familiar single-celled organism.
Each of these words has appeared in the Spelling Bee pretty often, always in pairs, of course. But only twice have all four of these related words appeared in the same Bee puzzle: on February 11, 2022 and March 31, 2025.