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The New York Times offers a selection of word games, including the classic Spelling Bee, where you must stretch your vocabulary and letter-arranging knowledge to form four-or-more-letter words from seven letters. These are arranged in a honeycomb, where the center letter plays an important role in being a part of every possible word combination in the puzzle.

There are days when you're faced with a single vowel or combinations of letters that don't make sense at first glance, adding to the difficulty of the game. These tips and tricks will help you master Spelling Bee in no time.

Related: How to play Spelling Bee (New York Times)?

Today's Hints

On the upper right of the game screen, you'll find a button that redirects you to Today's Hints, which is presented in a grid and two-letter list. At the top of the hints, you'll find out how many words can be formed with the day's provided letters, the number of points you can get, as well as the number of pangrams (words containing seven unique letters).

The grid indicates the number of four to nine-letter words that start with each of the day's letters. In the image above, the grid specifies that there's one four-letter word that starts with F, two five-letter words that start with F, one nine-letter word that starts with V, and so on.

The summations on the last column and last row simply add up the values, so don't be intimidated by them! Meanwhile, the two-letter list at the bottom tells you how many words can be formed with the specified letter combinations.

Shuffle Button

As its name suggests, the shuffle button below the honeycomb will rearrange all the letters except for the center one. This allows you to view the letters from a different perspective, which may spark inspiration to find words you couldn't see before.

Break Up Long Words

If you form long words at the start of the game, it's a good idea to take a closer look at them and find ways to break them down into smaller words. For example, the word "ideation" can be broken down into "idea," "date," "dote," "notion," and more.

For more guides about Spelling Bee and other word games, check out Pro Game Guides.

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