What is "Queen Bee" in the NYT Spelling Bee?
Queen Bee is the highest achievement level in the New York Times Spelling Bee, reached when you find all possible words in a puzzle.
How to Achieve Queen Bee Status
To reach Queen Bee, you must find every valid word that the puzzle creators have included in that day's puzzle. The word list is pre-determined by the NYT, so you're trying to match their complete list.
What Words Count?
Not all words you might think of will be accepted. The New York Times excludes:
- Proper nouns (names, places)
- Offensive or obscure words
- Hyphenated words
- Words that are always capitalized
- Abbreviations, prefixes, and suffixes
Finding Today's Queen Bee Score
The NYT doesn't reveal the total points needed for Queen Bee until you reach it. However, our Today's Hints page shows the Queen Bee score without spoiling the answers.
Tip:
Achieving Queen Bee requires 100% of the maximum possible points for that day's puzzle.
The Path to Queen Bee
There are 10 ranking levels in the Spelling Bee, starting from "Beginner" and progressing through Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing, and Genius before reaching Queen Bee. Learn more about all the levels and their requirements.