Seven letters, one hive. Make words of four letters or more, always using the center letter, and climb from Beginner to Genius. Find every word and you're Queen Bee.
Download on theApp StoreLive demo: tap the hive, spell a word, score.
Common words count toward your rank. Rarer words are still accepted as Bonus — they score, but you never need an obscure word to reach Queen Bee. Missing a word you know? Add it to your own dictionary and it's accepted from then on.
The remaining-words grid, the two-letter list and Bingo status live inside the game — no forum, no second app. Reveal a word when you really need it.
A new hive every day with a streak to protect, yesterday's full answer list, and a calendar of past puzzles you can still play.
Three thousand more puzzles in Easy, Medium and Hard, with their own stats — play as many as you like without touching your daily streak.
Puzzles played, words and pangrams found, Genius and Queen Bee counts, your longest word, and a wall of achievements to earn.
Every puzzle gives you a result card with your rank, points and pangrams — with the answers hidden by default.
Free to play with a small banner. A single one-time purchase removes all ads, opens the full archive, gives unlimited reveals and unlocks every hive theme. Pay once, keep it forever.
Fully offline, no account. Tap the hive or type on a hardware keyboard on iPad. Light and dark modes, with sound and haptics you can switch off.
Spelling Bee is an independent app and is not affiliated with The New York Times.
Effective date: August 21, 2026
Spelling Bee ("the app") is developed and published by the developer listed on our App Store page. This policy explains what information the app handles and how. The full policy is also available at /apps/spelling-bee/privacy/.
The app requires no account and no sign-in. Your puzzle progress, statistics, streaks, achievements, custom dictionary and settings are stored locally on your device and are not transmitted to us.
The free version shows ads served by Google AdMob, including optional rewarded ads you can choose to watch to reveal a word or unlock an archive day. If you grant the iOS tracking permission, AdMob may use your device's advertising identifier to show more relevant ads; if you decline, ads are shown without tracking. See Google's Privacy Policy for details. Purchasing Premium removes all advertising from the app.
We use Google Firebase Analytics to collect anonymous, aggregated usage data (for example, which screens are used and how often the app crashes). This helps us improve the app and is not used to identify you.
Premium is a one-time, non-consumable in-app purchase processed entirely by Apple. We never see or store your payment information.
The app is a general-audience word game and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Questions? Email wuyuping38@gmail.com.
Found a bug, think a word is missing from the list, or have a feature request? Email wuyuping38@gmail.com — the puzzle letters and the word always help.