Amal Augustine
Founder, Spelling Better
Amal Augustine is the founder of Spelling Better, an innovative learning app designed to help students improve their spelling, vocabulary, and language skills through interactive and engaging methods.
He graduated from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan, focusing on research and technology-driven learning.
A quiz enthusiast, Amal has won 50+ national-level quiz competitions. He enjoys reading science journals, programming, and exploring Computer Science innovations. Through Spelling Better, he aims to make vocabulary learning simple, enjoyable, and meaningful.
Grow It Both Ways: NYT Spelling Bee 28 September 2026 — CONDUCTOR & NONCONDUCTOR
Two pangrams today, and one of them is a monster. NONCONDUCTOR runs to twelve letters — the sort of answer that looks impossible until you realise it's just a short word that kept growing.
Because that's the lesson today. Most players find one pangram and stop. The better habit is to take the pangram you've found and ask whether it can get longer at either end.
Tap a letter to filter the word list
How I solved it
The list was full of –OR
DOCTOR. ROTOR. TUTOR. Three words, same ending, all found in the first few minutes. –OR is the agent suffix: it turns a verb into the person or thing that performs it. Act becomes actor, edit becomes editor.
When a hive hands you three of them for free, it's telling you what shape the pangram takes.
One verb was already sitting there, one letter short
CONDUCT was on my list. It uses C, O, N, D, U and T — six of the seven tiles. The orphan was R, and –OR supplies exactly that.
Then comes the part most solvers skip: having extended a word forwards, try extending it backwards. Grow it yourself:
Then I grew it the other way
NON– is one of the cheapest prefixes in English — it uses only N and O, both already in the pool, and it attaches to almost any noun without asking permission.
NON + CONDUCTOR = NONCONDUCTOR. Twelve letters. A material that doesn't carry electricity, and the longest word this hive will give you.
A pangram is a starting point, not a finish line. Check both ends. If NON–, UN–, RE– or OUT– can be built from your tiles, your nine-letter answer may have a twelve-letter twin.
Every word in today's hive
Tap a word once you've found it and the bar above keeps score. Each group stays hidden until you ask for it, so you can take one length at a time. Pangrams are marked ✦.
Word of the day
Orotund
adjective · from the Latin ore rotundo, with a round mouth
Horace used the phrase approvingly, of good Greek poetry. English kept the praise and added the sneer — and the difference between the two is mostly a matter of degree.
What to carry into tomorrow
- Repeated endings are blueprints. DOCTOR, ROTOR and TUTOR all pointed at –OR before I'd found anything long.
- Check your six-letter words for orphans. CONDUCT was one letter short of a pangram. A word missing a single tile is almost always the answer in disguise.
- Extend in both directions. Suffix first, then prefix. NON–, UN–, RE– and OUT– are cheap, common, and turn a good answer into a great one.
- Cheap prefixes reuse letters you already have. NON– needs only N and O. It costs nothing and adds three letters.
- Don't stop at the first pangram. Hives that support one long word frequently support a longer one built on the same root.
Centre T · Outer C N O D R U · Pangrams CONDUCTOR, NONCONDUCTOR
See you at tomorrow's hive.