Spelling Bees with Fewest Starting Letters
Updated 2024-11-30
In the Spelling Bee of 2024-11-19, all the words in the solution set began with either of two letters (H or Y). A player posted this query to the Spelling Bee forum: “Does this Bee include the fewest words with different first letters ever? Has there ever been one where all the words started with just one letter?”
Here are the answers to those questions.
Nearly all the Spelling Bee puzzles have 5, 6, or 7 different starting letters. (A Bee that has seven different starting letters is a “bingo” puzzle.) We did not compute the exact numbers of puzzles with 5, 6, or 7 starting letters, as they are the vast preponderance, but here are the numbers for all the rest:
A very small number of Bees – just 67 – had words that began with only four different letters.
A smaller number – only 9 – had words that began with only three different letters.
One Bee – the puzzle of 2024-11-19 – had words that began with only two different letters.
And one Bee – that of 2024-07-04 – had words that all began with the same letter. (J)
So, of all Spelling Bees to date, the solution sets of only 78 have had four or fewer starting letters. They are all listed below. This information is updated at the end of each calendar month.
Here are the answers to those questions.
Nearly all the Spelling Bee puzzles have 5, 6, or 7 different starting letters. (A Bee that has seven different starting letters is a “bingo” puzzle.) We did not compute the exact numbers of puzzles with 5, 6, or 7 starting letters, as they are the vast preponderance, but here are the numbers for all the rest:
A very small number of Bees – just 67 – had words that began with only four different letters.
A smaller number – only 9 – had words that began with only three different letters.
One Bee – the puzzle of 2024-11-19 – had words that began with only two different letters.
And one Bee – that of 2024-07-04 – had words that all began with the same letter. (J)
So, of all Spelling Bees to date, the solution sets of only 78 have had four or fewer starting letters. They are all listed below. This information is updated at the end of each calendar month.
Spelling Bees with only one initial letter:2024-07-04
Spelling Bees with only two initial letters:2024-11-19
Spelling Bees with only two initial letters:2024-11-19
Spelling Bees with only three initial letters:2019-07-102019-11-182020-12-272021-01-062021-01-302021-05-302022-05-272022-11-122024-05-23
Spelling Bees with only four initial letters:
2018-06-092018-09-102018-10-252018-11-162018-12-022018-12-132019-03-262019-06-112019-07-252019-08-142019-10-202019-12-142020-02-062020-03-152020-04-112020-04-202020-05-27
2020-05-292020-07-112020-07-192020-08-262020-10-052020-10-272020-11-132020-12-082021-03-252021-05-212021-08-062021-09-242021-11-132021-11-202021-12-302022-02-072022-03-12
2022-03-292022-05-252022-08-162022-08-172022-09-102022-10-022022-10-232022-11-242023-01-032023-01-232023-02-102023-04-122023-05-222023-05-262023-06-152023-06-232023-09-19
2023-10-292023-10-302023-11-012023-11-172024-01-222024-03-112024-04-172024-07-112024-07-192024-08-082024-08-152024-09-102024-10-102024-10-132024-10-26
If you cite information from this LexiConnexxions report, please give credit and a link to this page. Thank you.