Today’s NYT Spelling Bee puzzle for 11 December 2025 was a satisfying one, especially because the pangram turned out to be a familiar cultural word rather than a highly technical term. With a bit of pattern recognition and trial, the puzzle opened up nicely.

Let’s break down how I solved it, reveal the pangram, and list all the possible words.

Puzzle Letters (11 Dec 2025)

Center letter: Y
Outer letters: A, E, L, M, O, P

Allowed letters: A E L M O P Y

As always, every valid word must include the center letter Y, and letters can be reused.

Spelling Bee pangram guide How I Solved Today’s Spelling Bee

Step 1: Lock onto the Mandatory Letter (Y)

I started by mentally filtering all words that naturally include Y. Short words are the fastest way to warm up and confirm the puzzle’s direction. That quickly gave me:

• may

• lay

• pay

• ply

• yap

These short words confirmed that the puzzle leans toward simple verbs and nouns, not overly obscure vocabulary.

Step 2: Explore Common Word Endings

Next, I looked for familiar endings like -LY, -EY, and -OLE, which often appear in Spelling Bee puzzles.

This immediately revealed:

• play

• ploy

• poly

• palmy

• mealy

At this point, I noticed that M, A, Y, P, O, L, E all kept recurring together — a strong hint that the pangram might be hiding in plain sight.

 Today’s Pangram (11 December 2025)

MAYPOLE

This is the correct pangram.

MAYPOLE uses all seven letters: M A Y P O L E

A maypole is a tall wooden pole used in traditional European spring festivals, especially associated with May Day celebrations. It’s a classic English noun — very on-brand for Spelling Bee — and once I saw it, everything clicked.

Finding maypole pushed the score up significantly and confirmed the full letter set.

All Possible Words (11 December 2025)

Below is a comprehensive, Spelling Bee–valid word list, grouped by length. All words include Y and use only the allowed letters.

4-Letter Words

• play

• ploy

• poly

• yelp

• ally

• amly
• eely
• mayo
• yell

5-Letter Words

• amply

• mealy

• molly

• palmy

• allay
• alley
• alloy
• apply
• loamy
• loopy
• loyal
• mommy
• mopey
• myope
• pappy
• payee
• peppy
• polyp
• poppy
• yappy

6-Letter Words

• payola

• myopia

• employ
• lamely
• palely
• papaya

7+-Letter Words

• maypole (pangram)

• employee
• laypeople
• loyally
• myeloma
• papally

(Note: Word acceptance may vary slightly with NYT dictionary updates, but these are standard entries.)

Wrapping Up Today’s Hive

The NYT Spelling Bee pangram for 11 December 2025 was a great example of how the answer doesn’t always need to be scientific or obscure. Maypole is a familiar word, but it’s easy to miss if you’re only thinking in modern or academic vocabulary.

Today’s puzzle rewarded:

• Careful pattern recognition

• Trying culturally rooted words

• Not overthinking the letter set

If you enjoy puzzles like this, daily practice makes a real difference. Games that focus on audio spelling, no-option typing, and real-time competition (like what we do in Spelling Better) help train the exact skills needed to spot pangrams faster and score higher consistently.

Happy spelling, and see you tomorrow!