Fans of the NYT Spelling Bee puzzle, has it ever occurred to you that it would be a lot easier to assemble words if one of the letters was an S? Well, the NYT Spelling Bee puzzle for March 12 obliged, to mark the 2,500th edition of the game. (Do you play NYT Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition, Strands and the Mini Crossword? We have a daily puzzle answers page that gives you hints and help.)
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"The other 25 letters of the alphabet have all appeared time and time again dating back to the start of the puzzle in 2018, but this (was) a first for the letter 'S,'" a representative for The New York Times said in a statement. The statement called the addition of S a "game board debut that the Spelling Bee community has been asking for throughout the years."
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Make a word, then make it plural
The NYT Spelling Bee has been around since 2014 in print and since 2018 online. The rules are pretty simple: Each day offers up seven letters arranged in a honeycomb shape (that's a bee joke). Players make words of four or more letters using the given characters, and those words always have to include the center letter. There's always one pangram, which means a word that uses all seven of the letters and earns big points. If you find all the possible words, you're rewarded with the title of Queen Bee.
But until now, you couldn't just make a word and immediately add an S and get more points, because there was no S, ever. With this addition, it's a lot easier to earn that coveted Queen Bee ranking.
Read more: We have answers and hints for the current NYT daily puzzles
Why throw in an S now? NYT digital puzzles editor Sam Ezersky said the 2,500th puzzle "felt like a good time to try something new and exciting."
Yes, Wednesday has passed. But you can still play the special S-including Spelling Bee puzzle online. The pangram ties in to the game as well. (Hint: This was an extraordinary puzzle, and the pangram means the same thing as "extraordinary.")
Sorry, players, this was a one-off. Thursday's NYT Spelling Bee went back to normal and doesn't include an S.
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