The hive for 8 September 2026 puts I at the centre, ringed by A, F, C, L, T, E.
Three vowels in a seven-letter grid is generous, and it shows — there are more than forty answers here. But the real feature of today's puzzle is that both pangrams share their first three letters. Find one and the other is a short step away, provided you know to look.
Step oneReading the grid
- Three vowels means length.A, E and I between them support long words, which is why today's board runs to eight and ten letters rather than stopping at six. Grids with two vowels produce clipped, hard-edged words. This one produces LATTICE and TACTILE.
- Doubled letters are essential.LL in FILL, TILL, FILLET, ILLICIT. TT in LATTICE, LITTLE. FF in TIFF and CLIFF. Repeats are allowed and today they account for close to a third of the board.
- C and F are the scarce letters.Between them they narrow the pangram hunt considerably, since any word using all seven letters has to accommodate both.
Step twoFinding both pangrams
Each pangram needs all seven: F, A, C, E, L, I, T.
I started from the two scarce letters and asked what natural English opening uses C and F alongside A. The answer is short: FAC-.
FACE + LIFT
FACELIFT Eight letters · pangramFACILE + ATE
FACILITATE Ten letters · pangramFACE has no I — not a legal answer on its own
The first arrived quickly. FACE covers F, A, C and E — and though FACE itself isn't legal today, it's the right foundation. What's missing is L, I and T.
Here's the part worth internalising. Rather than starting over, I stayed on the same stem. FAC- had produced one pangram; what else could it produce? FACILE was already on my list — F, A, C, I, L, E, and missing only T. Extend it into its verb form and the T arrives twice.
Two pangrams, one stem, roughly thirty seconds apart. That doesn't always happen — but it happens often enough that checking is worth the effort.
The full word list
Grouped by length. Tap any word to mark it found — it counts towards your score above.
Answers hidden — no accidental spoilers
The ones people miss
- TACTICALEight letters, not a pangram, and today's cruellest near-miss. Two C's and two T's.
- CILIAThe tiny hair-like projections on a cell. CILIATE, the organism covered in them, is also valid.
- ILIACRelating to the ilium, the broad upper bone of the pelvis.
- CALCITEThe mineral form of calcium carbonate.
- CATTAILThe reed with the brown cylindrical flower head.
- LICITLawful. Rarer than its opposite, ILLICIT, which is also on the board.
The takeaway
Today's habit is simple and underused: when you find a pangram, go back to its stem before you move on.
Most solvers submit the long word, feel the small rush, and start fresh somewhere else on the board. But a stem that supports one seven-letter arrangement often supports another — same root, different ending, different length. FAC- gave up FACELIFT and FACILITATE within a minute of each other.
One pangram is a result. Two is a pattern worth checking for.
Next grid tomorrow.