How To Reach Genius In Spelling Bee

How Scoring Works

Every word must use the center letter and be at least four letters long. Letters can repeat. A four letter word scores one point. Every longer word scores one point per letter, so a seven letter word is worth seven. A pangram, which uses all seven letters at least once, scores its length plus a bonus of seven.

Genius is 70 percent of the day's total points. That matters for strategy: long words and pangrams carry the score, so a player who finds the big words reaches Genius with far fewer finds than one who collects four letter words.

Step 1: Look For The Pangram First

Every puzzle has at least one pangram. A seven letter pangram scores fourteen points on its own, on many days roughly a tenth of what Genius needs. Look for the common endings first, because the pangram very often uses one: if the letters include I, N and G, try -ING; E and D, try -ED; I, O and N, try -ION. Then see what the remaining four letters can do in front of it.

Step 2: Work The Endings

Once you have any word, try it with every ending the letters allow. If the hive holds the letters for -ING or -ED, one find of PLAN can become PLANE, PLANED and PLANNING. The puzzle leaves out the letter S, so plurals never count, and the endings that do the work are -ING, -ED, -ER, -ION and -ATION. Write down your roots and run every root through every ending.

Step 3: Pair Every Letter With The Center

Take each outer letter and put it next to the center letter in both orders, then try to build words from that pair. If the center is L and an outer letter is A, try words starting LA_ and AL_, then words that contain -AL- or -LA- inside them. Going letter by letter around the hive is slow, but it stops you from circling the same few words, which is where most people stall.

Step 4: Double Letters

Letters can repeat, and players forget it. BILL, CHILL, LILAC and ILLICIT all reuse a letter. Once you have run out of ideas, go back through the hive asking which letters commonly double in English: L, S, E, O, T, P, F and R are the usual ones.

Step 5: Use The Hints Grid To Finish

The hints grid tells you how many words start with each letter at each length. Compare it with your list and the gaps point straight at what is missing: three five letter words starting with C, and you have only found two. The two letter list narrows it further. Our Spelling Bee hints for today include both, with the answers hidden until you open them.

Why Real Words Get Rejected

The Spelling Bee list is chosen by an editor, not taken from a full dictionary. Obscure, technical and offensive words are left out, and so are many words that a Scrabble dictionary would accept. If a word you know is refused, it is not your spelling. It simply is not on the day's list.

Practice On Any Letters

The Spelling Bee Solver takes any center letter and six outer letters and lists every valid word, pangrams marked. It is a good way to practice on old puzzles and see which kinds of words you tend to miss.