science

The New York Times Spelling Bee

The New York Times Spelling Bee is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The New York Times Spelling Bee rather than just read about it. In short: The New York Times Spelling Bee, or simply Spelling Bee, is a word game distributed in print and electronic format by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. Created by Frank Longo, the game debuted in a weekly print format on February 22, 2015.

Key takeaways

The New York Times Spelling Bee belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The New York Times Spelling Bee to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The New York Times Spelling Bee from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The New York Times Spelling Bee, or simply Spelling Bee, is a word game distributed in print and electronic format by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. Created by Frank Longo, the game debuted in a weekly print format on February 22, 2015. A digital daily version with an altered scoring system launched on May 9, 2018.

Gameplay

The game presents players with a hexagonal grid of 7 letters arrayed in a honeycomb structure. The player scores points by using the letters to form words consisting of four or more letters. However, any words proposed by the player must include the letter at the center of the honeycomb. Each letter can be used more than once. Each qualifying word scores one point per letter, except for four letter words, which only score 1 point each. Scoring points leads to progressively higher praise for the player's effort, such as "Solid", "Amazing", and "Genius". Each puzzle is guaranteed to have at least one pangram, a word containing at least one of each of the seven letters. Pangrams award 7 extra points (e.g. a seven-letter pangram scores 14 points). If the player finds all of the possible words in a given puzzle, they achieve the title of "Queen Bee". In 2021, the editor Sam Ezersky stated his intention to never include the letter S in a puzzle. He said this inclusion would make the game too simple to win by adding plurals. An exception was made on March 12, 2025, when the letter S was included to celebrate the 2,500th edition of the Spelling Bee. The letter S was included also on September 2, 2025 and May 29, 2026.

Creation Spelling Bee was created by Frank Longo following a proposal from Will Shortz, who was inspired by “a popular feature in British newspapers”, namely the puzzle game Polygon from The Times. The game launched in its print format in 2015 as a weekly feature in The New York Times Magazine. The game's digital version debuted on May 9, 2018 with Sam Ezersky as the new editor. The cartoon bee mascot, Beeatrice, was designed by Robert Vinluan for the digital version. The game goes live at 3 A.M. Eastern Time every day.

Reception Since its online debut in 2018, Spelling Bee's popularity has grown and the game has received praise from other game makers in the media industry. Pat Myers of The Washington Post wrote that, despite being a lifelong promoter of The Washington Post, she found herself in "the thrall of the New York Times Spelling Bee game". Nilanjana Roy of the Financial Times praised the game as one of the best ways to pass the time and connect with friends during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Jim Memmot of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle similarly praised the game as a pleasant pastime during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to its reception among critics, the game has also spawned a significant following on social media, with players posting their scores and discussing each day's word selections on Twitter. Several online tools have been created to provide daily hints and analysis of the puzzle, among them one by science fiction author William Shunn was mentioned in The New York Times itself.

Influence The same concept was adapted to the Catalan language by a non-profit in November 2021. The website, called Paraulògic, went viral in Catalonia a month after its launch.

References

External links Spelling Bee – Official site Glossary of Spelling Bee Terms - Official New York Times guide to Spelling Bee and definition of terms

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The New York Times Spelling Bee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The New York Times Spelling Bee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The New York Times Spelling Bee before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The New York Times Spelling Bee ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The New York Times Spelling Bee

In research: The New York Times Spelling Bee appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The New York Times Spelling Bee in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The New York Times Spelling Bee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2018 video games, Browser games, Single-player video games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The New York Times Spelling Bee outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The New York Times Spelling Bee in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The New York Times Spelling Bee means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The New York Times Spelling Bee out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The New York Times Spelling Bee in simple terms?

Why does The New York Times Spelling Bee matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The New York Times Spelling Bee?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The New York Times Spelling Bee.