If you’ve been tackling today’s NYT Spelling Bee puzzle, you’ll know that some days the words pop into your head instantly, while others require a bit of patient letter shuffling. Today’s challenge was one of those satisfying ones where the answer felt just out of reach — until the moment it clicked.

The center letter for today was U, which meant every valid word needed to include it. The outer letters were T, R, A, C, O, H — a versatile but slightly deceptive mix.

How I Cracked Today’s Pangram

My approach usually begins with scanning for familiar chunks — prefixes like co-, tra-, or out-, and suffixes like -or, -th, and -act. Right away, I spotted court, chart, and actor, which gave me a nice starting base.

From there, I looked for ways to connect these chunks into longer words. I tried different combinations aloud and on paper, which is often how I spot patterns. That’s when I stumbled upon the key connection: combining co with author.

Suddenly, everything clicked — the pangram was COAUTHOR. It used all seven letters exactly once and was perfectly valid according to the Spelling Bee’s dictionary. Once I had it, the rest of the board opened up, and words I’d previously missed started jumping out.

NYT Spelling Bee puzzle solver with word list -12 August 2025

Here’s the complete list of words I found today, sorted by length:

4-Letter Words

• arch
• auto
• char
• chat
• coat
• curt
• haut
• hour
• rout
• tour

5-Letter Words

• actor
• chart
• court
• haunt
• roach
• touch
• couch

6-Letter Words

• author
• crutch
• crouth
• aurora
• church
• hurrah

7-Letter Words

• curacao
• curator

8+-Letter Words

• coauthor (Pangram)
• actuator
• autocrat
• cutthroat

Tips for Finding the Pangram Faster

1. Spot the center-letter patterns – In today’s case, nearly every longer word had ou or au as a vowel pair.

2. Experiment with common compounds – “Co” was a big hint for this puzzle since it led straight to “coauthor.”

3. Shuffle the board frequently – Sometimes a visual refresh helps the brain spot a new possibility.

4. Break words into two parts – Splitting “author” from “co” was the breakthrough here.

Buzzing Off with a Bang

Today’s Spelling Bee was a fun mix of straightforward smaller words and a clever pangram that required both pattern recognition and a bit of trial-and-error. COAUTHOR was a perfect example of how the game rewards flexible thinking — the “co” prefix might not jump out immediately, but once it does, the rest of the puzzle feels like a breeze.

Did you find COAUTHOR early on, or did it take you a while like it did for me? Either way, the process is part of the joy, and the learning that comes with each puzzle keeps us coming back day after day.