The New York Times Spelling Bee has a way of challenging your vocabulary and stretching your patience. Today’s puzzle was no exception, with N as the center letter and the following outer letters: O, B, E, L, M, D. At first glance, the mix felt both promising and tricky—lots of consonants, a couple of vowels, and the possibility of repeating letters. After some persistence, I cracked it and found today’s pangram: EMBOLDEN.

Step 1: Spotting the Center Letter

The first rule of Spelling Bee is that the center letter must appear in every word. With N in the middle, I began by mentally pairing it with the available vowels (O, E) and seeing what blends well with the consonants around it. Quickly, short constructions like end, bone, done, and lone surfaced. This gave me confidence that there were plenty of building blocks here.

Step 2: Building From Small Words

To warm up, I hunted for the obvious three- and four-letter words:

• den, men, nod, one, end, bond, bend, lend, dome.

These easy finds help build rhythm and sharpen focus for longer words. They also reassure me that the puzzle is solvable and not one of those “vowel desert” hives that grind you down.

Step 3: Chasing Patterns

The fun of Spelling Bee is often in spotting recurring prefixes or suffixes. With today’s letters, endings like -end and -one appeared again and again. Words like clone weren’t possible, but alone and stone (if they had been available) would’ve fit the pattern. Instead, belon(e) gave me a hint of direction, and belong nearly teased me, though the “g” was missing.

Still, this train of thought got me to embolden, which turned out to be today’s pangram.

Step 4: Discovering the Pangram (EMBOLDEN)

The breakthrough came after exploring combinations starting with “em-.” Seeing E, M, B, O, L, D, N, the word practically formed itself. EMBOLDEN was not only valid but also perfect—it used every letter, felt thematic, and gave me a rush of satisfaction. Pangrams like this are what make the daily grind worthwhile.

Step 5: Expanding the Word List

With the pangram in hand, I doubled down on systematically scanning for remaining words. Here’s a breakdown of all the possible finds from today’s hive:

Full Word List

4-letter words:

• bond
• bend
• lend
• dome
• done
• lone
• mode
• node
• been
• noel
• omen
• noon
• none

• blend
• blond
• demon
• lemon
• melon
• boned
• ended
• emend
• noble
• odeon
• olden

• blonde
• behold
• noodle
• bemoan
• bonbon
• bonded
• bonobo
• donned
• mended
• mooned
• needed
• needle
• nodded

• bemoled
• bellmen
• blended
• deboned
• emended
• ennoble
• needled
• noodled

• Pangram: embolden

• emboldened
• ennobled
• melodeon
• noblemen

(Note: Depending on NYT’s internal dictionary, some variants may or may not count, but these were my logical pulls.)

Step 6: Lessons From Today’s Puzzle

What I love about today’s Spelling Bee is the reminder that persistence pays off. The grid leaned heavily on consonants, which can look intimidating, but thinking in patterns (like em- and -end) cracked the puzzle open. It’s a good example of how the game rewards not just vocabulary but also flexible thinking.

Unlocking the Final Layers

September 9, 2025, gave us a lively puzzle with EMBOLDEN as the pangram. The journey from spotting short fillers like nod and den to landing on the big reveal was genuinely satisfying. If you struggled, don’t worry—many of these puzzles hinge on one or two key insights. Tomorrow brings a new hive and a new chance to sharpen your word-finding skills.

So keep practicing, stay curious, and let each pangram embolden you for the next round!