Today's puzzle is a showman with a secret. August 22 gives us a double pangram day — and one of the pair is a perfect pangram, using all seven letters exactly once. But here's the delicious detail most solvers will miss: the two pangrams are practically twins. Take the perfect one, add a single extra T, shuffle the tiles, and the second appears. One word throws the stage open; the other barely speaks. Let's pull back the… well, you know.
The Pangrams: CURTAIN and TACITURN
CURTAIN
The perfect pangram, and it was my first find. My route: I anchored on the center I and started spinning common blends. TR- plus the I gave me TRAIN and TRAIT quickly, and TRAIN got me thinking about -AIN endings. RAIN, then the hunt for a consonant opener that used more of the grid: C-URTAIN? The moment I tried the CUR- prefix with -TAIN, all seven hexagons lit gold. Perfect pangram, maybe three minutes in.
TACITURN
This one took embarrassingly longer, and I found it through a habit worth stealing: interrogate your pangram for relatives. Once CURTAIN landed, I asked whether its letters plus a repeat could form anything else.
Doubling the T unlocked it — TACITURN, meaning reserved or untalkative. The word TACIT (also on today's list!) was the stepping stone: TACIT + URN, welded together. Two pangrams, one letter apart.
My Solving Strategy
- Spin the TR- and -AIN wheels.
TRAIN, TRAIT, RAIN — the grid's friendliest sounds fall first and reveal the -TAIN skeleton behind CURTAIN. - Deploy the -IC suffix.
With C in the hive, adjectives rain down: ANTIC, ATTIC, CITRIC, CRITIC, NITRIC, TANTRIC, and the mighty TITANIC. - Reuse letters ruthlessly.
CACTI doubles the C, ATTAIN doubles the T, TITAN doubles the T — and doubling T is literally how the second pangram exists. - Interrogate your first pangram.
Found one? Check its anagram neighborhood before moving on. CURTAIN + T = TACITURN.
The Word List
Every word below contains the center letter I. Tap a word to mark it found — or build it in the honeycomb above and let the list check itself. Filter by length if you're only missing a few.
Today's Takeaway
Double-pangram days reward solvers who don't stop celebrating too early. The habit to build: every pangram is a clue to another. Check whether adding a repeated letter or re-shuffling produces a sibling — the editors love planting related pairs, and CURTAIN/TACITURN is as elegant as they come.
My series began twelve days ago with the MENTALLY/ELEMENTALLY twins; today closes the loop with another matched set.