Today's NYT Spelling Bee uses center letter C with outer letters A, I, M, O, R, T. The puzzle contains 63 words worth 297 points, including 1 pangram. The longest word is 9 letters. To reach Genius you need 208 points; Queen Bee requires all 297 points. Today is not a bingo — at least one letter starts no words. Compared with the eight-year average of about 184 points per puzzle, this is a larger-than-average day.

Game Summary

Table of Contents

As you scroll down this page, the clues get progressively more revealing. So scroll slowly!

1. Spelling Bee Grid
2. Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
3. Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
4. Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing) 🤯
5. Today's Complete Solution
6. Answer Definitions

If you're just here for a list of NYT Spelling Bee answers, Jump down to the answers ↓ (Spoiler Alert!).

Spelling Bee Grid

The following table shows the standard Spelling Bee summary grid, which lists word lengths across the top and letters down the left-hand side. The cell where the word lengths and letters intersect displays the number of words in today's puzzle with the corresponding first letter and word length.

Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding two letters.

Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints

The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding three letters.

Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing)

The table below lists all of the solutions to today's puzzle, but they're concealed. You can click the plus button (+) to reveal additional letters, one-by-one.

Concealed definitions are provided as additional clues. You can toggle concealment of the definitions by clicking on the concealer bar or the text that appears when the definition is visible.

Pangrams are marked with a dagger symbol (^†).

Today's Complete Solution

The words that follow are a complete listing of all acceptable words in today's New York Time Spelling Bee puzzle.

Next to the answer word you'll see the two-letter reference (2L Ref) in parentheses. We added that 2L Ref for easier translation of the spoiler-avoidant language you see on the Spelling Bee Forum and Twitter. The 2L Ref signifies a word's two start letters followed by the total number of letters in the word.

• aromatic^†  (AR8)
• acacia  (AC6)
• acai  (AC4)
• actor  (AC5)
• aortic  (AO6)
• arco  (AR4)
• arctic  (AR6)
• atomic  (AT6)
• attic  (AT5)
• attract  (AT7)
• attractor  (AT9)
• cacao  (CA5)
• cacti  (CA5)
• cami  (CA4)
• camo  (CA4)
• carat  (CA5)
• carom  (CA5)
• carrot  (CA6)
• cart  (CA4)
• cataract  (CA8)
• ciao  (CI4)
• circa  (CI5)
• cirri  (CI5)
• citric  (CI6)
• coat  (CO4)
• coati  (CO5)
• coatroom  (CO8)
• coca  (CO4)
• cocci  (CO5)
• cocoa  (CO5)
• coir  (CO4)
• coma  (CO4)
• comic  (CO5)
• comma  (CO5)
• commit  (CO6)
• coot  (CO4)
• cram  (CR4)
• critic  (CR6)
• croc  (CR4)
• croci  (CR5)
• macro  (MA5)
• maraca  (MA6)
• mica  (MI4)
• micro  (MI5)
• mimic  (MI5)
• morocco  (MO7)
• motorcar  (MO8)
• orca  (OR4)
• ricotta  (RI7)
• rococo  (RO6)
• romcom  (RO6)
• tacit  (TA5)
• taco  (TA4)
• tact  (TA4)
• tactic  (TA6)
• tarmac  (TA6)
• toccata  (TO7)
• tomcat  (TO6)
• toric  (TO5)
• tract  (TR5)
• tractor  (TR7)
• tramcar  (TR7)
• tricot  (TR6)

Answer Definitions

• aromatic^† (adjective): Fragrant or spicy.
• acacia (noun): A shrub or tree of the tribe Acacieae.
• acai (noun): Any of several South American palms, of the genus Euterpe, having a dark purple drupe.
• actor (noun): Someone who institutes a legal suit; a plaintiff or complainant.
• aortic (adjective): Of or pertaining to the aorta or the aortic valve.
• arco (adverb): A note in string instrument musical notation indicating that the bow is to be used in the usual way, usually following a passage that is played pizzicato.
• arctic (adjective): Alternative letter-case form of Arctic
• atomic (adjective): Of or relating to atoms; composed of atoms; monatomic.
• attic (noun): The space, often unfinished and with sloped walls, directly below the roof in the uppermost part of a house or other building, generally used for storage or habitation.
• attract (verb): To pull toward without touching.
• attractor (noun): Something which attracts.
• cacao (noun): A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
• cacti (noun): plural of cactus
• cami (noun): A camisole.
• camo (noun): A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.
• carat (noun): A unit of weight for precious stones and pearls, equivalent to 200 milligrams.
• carom (noun): A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball.
• carrot (noun): A vegetable with a nutritious, juicy, sweet root that is often orange in colour, Daucus carota, especially the subspecies sativus in the family Apiaceae.
• cart (noun): A small, open, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by a person or animal, more often used for transporting goods than passengers.
• cataract (noun): A waterspout.
• ciao (interjection): hello, hi.
• circa (preposition): Approximately, about, around
• cirri (noun): plural of cirrus Tendrils or claspers.
• citric (adjective): Of, pertaining to, or derived from, citrus fruit.
• coat (noun): An outer garment covering the upper torso and arms.
• coati (noun): Any of several omnivorous mammals, of the genus Nasua or Nasuella, in order Carnivora, that live in the range from southern United States to northern Argentina.
• coatroom (noun): A room intended for holding guests' coats and other heavy outerwear, as at a theater; a cloakroom.
• coca (noun): Any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America.
• cocci (noun): plural of coccus
• cocoa (noun): The dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made.
• coir (noun): The fibre obtained from the husk of a coconut, used chiefly in making rope, matting and as a peat substitute.
• coma (noun): A state of unconsciousness from which one may not wake up, usually induced by some form of trauma.
• comic (adjective): Pertaining to comedy, as a literary genre.
• comma (noun): English Wikipedia has an article on:commaWikipedia The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
• commit (verb): To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
• coot (noun): Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
• cram (verb): To press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
• critic (noun): A person who appraises the works of others.
• croc (noun): A crocodile.
• croci (noun): plural of crocus
• macro (adjective): Very large in scope or scale.
• maraca (noun): A Latin American percussion instrument consisting of a hollow-gourd rattle containing pebbles or beans and often played in pairs, as a rhythm instrument.
• mica (noun): Any of a group of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals characterized by highly perfect cleavage, so that they readily separate into very thin leaves, more or less elastic.
• micro (adjective): Small, relatively small; used to contrast levels of the noun modified.
• mimic (verb): To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
• morocco (noun): A soft leather, made from goatskin, used especially in bookbinding.
• motorcar (noun): An enclosed passenger motor vehicle, a car, powered by an engine.
• orca (noun): A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.
• ricotta (noun): A soft Italian unsalted whey cheese resembling cottage cheese.
• rococo (noun): A style of baroque architecture and decorative art, from 18th-century France, having elaborate ornamentation.
• romcom (noun): Clipping of romantic comedy.
• tacit (adjective): Implied, but not made explicit, especially through silence.
• taco (noun): A Mexican snack food made of a small tortilla (soft or hard shelled) filled with ingredients such as meat, rice, beans, cheese, diced vegetables and salsa.
• tact (noun): The sense of touch; feeling.
• tactic (noun): A maneuver, or action calculated to achieve some end.
• tarmac (noun): Tarmacadam.
• toccata (noun): A piece of music (usually for a keyboard instrument) designed to emphasise the dexterity of the performer.
• tomcat (noun): A tom, an intact male cat.
• toric (adjective): Pertaining to or shaped like a torus, or a section of a torus; toroidal.
• tract (noun): An area or expanse.
• tractor (noun): A vehicle used in farms e.g. for pulling farm equipment and preparing the fields.
• tramcar (noun): A streetcar.
• tricot (noun): A soft knit fabric.