Spelling Bee, from The New York Times, gives you seven letters arranged in a honeycomb, with one letter in the center. Every word needs four or more letters and must include that center letter, and letters can repeat. Points build toward ranks that top out at Genius, with the hidden Queen Bee for finding every answer, while a pangram uses all seven letters. The draw is the slow grind of finding one more word.
Every pick hands you a limited set of letters and asks how many words you can pull from it, ideally including a long one that uses them all. Two unlimited timed games lead the list, followed by the daily puzzles closest to the Bee's honeycomb rules and then looser word-building games.
Seven letters again, with a full seven-letter word hiding among them like a pangram, but there is no center letter and only ninety seconds; it is unlimited, so you can deal fresh letters as often as you want.
Like the Bee, the goal is volume, with every word adding to your total and long ones worth much more, but the letters sit on a four-by-four board you trace through; it is unlimited, with a new board every round.
The nearest free equivalent: seven letters in a flower, a required middle letter, words of four or more letters, and ranks to climb toward a top title called Golden Poppy.
Uses the same seven-letter layout with a mandatory center, but you get exactly twelve words, so choosing long words, pangrams and the day's bonus letter matters more than finding everything.
Instead of a letter set you get a short starting chunk and five tries to build the longest word around it, a different way to stretch your vocabulary.
Starts with a handful of letters to anagram and adds one more each round, so the words grow longer the way a Bee session builds toward its pangram.
Shares the find-them-all goal with the Bee: every word in a small letter grid counts toward a full list waiting to be completed, and a quick Express grid comes alongside.
Each round gives a set of letters to rearrange into a word that uses all of them, the pangram moment repeated twenty-three times against the clock.
Also about squeezing value from limited letters, though you pick only three words from a Boggle-style grid, with points that vary by tile and a bonus for six or more.
A newspaper classic that, like Spelling Bee, comes down to seeing words in scrambled letters, with a cartoon pun to solve from the circled letters at the end.
Spelling Bee is part of the New York Times Games subscription, so playing the full puzzle every day requires a paid account. If you want the same rules at no cost, Wordflower from the Los Angeles Times is the closest free match on this list, with a required center letter and its own ranks.
A pangram is a word that uses all seven letters at least once. It earns a bonus on top of its normal points, and every puzzle has at least one. Anagram Blitz and Blossom both reward the same discovery, a long word built from every letter you were given.
Four-letter words earn one point each. Longer words earn one point per letter, so a six-letter word is worth six, and a pangram adds seven extra points. Ranks are set as shares of the day's total possible score, which is why Genius can take a different number of words from one day to the next.
