Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle featured the center letter D and outer letters O, L, Y, A, I, H. After carefully exploring the possibilities, I discovered that the pangram for the day is HOLIDAY – a satisfying and cheerful word that perfectly fits today’s letter set.

Here’s how I approached and solved it.

Step 1: Observing the Letter Layout

The puzzle’s seven letters – D, O, L, Y, A, I, H – provided a mix of consonants and vowels, with D as the required letter. The first step was to mentally run through possible longer words that could use this letter set efficiently. Seeing O, L, I, A, H, Y around the central D sparked some initial guesses like daily, hold, and hoiday (though the latter isn’t a real word).

Step 2: Building Short Words First

I always start with smaller, common words to warm up:

• 4-letter examples: hold, dial, idol, load, lady, hail, doll
  These help identify promising letter combinations that can be extended into longer words.

From here, I noticed that holi could lead to “holiday” if I found the right ending. That clicked instantly.

Step 3: Spotting the Pangram

A pangram in NYT Spelling Bee is a word that uses all seven letters at least once.
When holiday popped into my head, I quickly confirmed:

• H

• O

• L

• I

• D

• A

• Y

It used all the letters exactly as needed, making it today’s pangram.

Step 4: Expanding the Word List

After securing the pangram, I systematically worked through other possibilities by focusing on:

1. Common prefixes and suffixes like -ly, -al, -id, -ally.

2. Letter blends such as lo, la, ha, ho, di, do.

This helped build a strong list of valid words.

Step 5: Final Word List

Here’s the complete breakdown of possible words by length:

• load
• hold
• idol
• lady
• hail
• doll
• laid
• dial
• dill
• dodo

5-Letter Words:

• daily
• doily
• idola
• dally
• dildo
• dolly
• oddly

6-Letter Words:

• haloed
• holiday
• dahlia
• diddly
• doodad
• hoodoo

• holiday (pangram)
• daylily
• dillydally

Why “Holiday” Works So Well

It’s always satisfying when the pangram is a familiar, uplifting word. “Holiday” instantly brings to mind relaxation, celebration, and time away from routine. That makes solving today’s puzzle extra rewarding.

Tips for Finding the Pangram

For those who struggled today:

1. Look for longer word stems – “holi” is a clue here.

2. Cycle through the center letter in your mind with each outer letter to find blends.

3. Visualize all letters together – sometimes seeing them written helps spark pangram recognition.

4. Don’t just focus on obscure words – often, it’s a common one.

Wrapping Up Today’s Hive

Today’s NYT Spelling Bee was an enjoyable mix of accessible short words and a feel-good pangram. Holiday is a perfect choice to brighten up a Monday puzzle. The key to solving it quickly was identifying smaller anchor words and then piecing them together into the final pangram.

If you’re playing daily, remember: start small, look for letter patterns, and don’t dismiss the obvious – your pangram might just be a word you use all the time.