Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle offered a refreshing challenge with a unique set of letters. The required center letter was O, surrounded by L, A, N, Y, C, H. As always, the goal was to form as many valid words as possible, each one including the center letter.

The highlight of today’s grid was the pangram HALCYON — a word that beautifully ties the puzzle together. Let me walk you through my solving journey and share all the words I discovered.

Step 1: Starting Small

I like to begin Spelling Bee puzzles by tackling the shorter words first. These early wins help build momentum and confidence. With O as the required letter, words like con, yon, hon, and loo quickly surfaced.

I also leaned on familiar patterns: -ly, -on, and -an. Sure enough, combinations like only and loan fell into place almost immediately.

Step 2: Spotting Useful Clusters

The mix of consonants made me test combinations like ch-, cl-, and yon-. This led to clan, cloy, and chon (though not all were accepted by the NYT word list). Still, this process helped me map the possibilities.

Adding H into the mix opened new doors — halo, holy, phony. From there, the puzzle started to feel richer and more promising.

Step 3: Unlocking the Pangram – HALCYON

The breakthrough moment came when I realized the letters could form HALCYON. This word means calm, peaceful, and idyllic — often used to describe “halcyon days.” Not only does it use all seven letters, but it also has a poetic beauty that makes it a perfect pangram.

Discovering the pangram is always exciting. Once I had HALCYON, the puzzle opened up further. Other related words like cloany or nacho popped into focus.

Step 4: Filling Out the Word List

After securing the pangram, I circled back and looked more systematically. By checking each starting letter (h-, c-, n-, y-, l-, a-), I was able to uncover more hidden gems.

Full Word List (September 4, 2025)

Here are the playable words I found in today’s puzzle:

• Pangram: HALCYON

Other words include:

4-letter words:

• Icon
• Loan
• Only
• Loon
• Noon
• Halo
• Holy
• Yo-yo
• Cloy
• Lacy
• Coho
• Cola
• Loch
• Loco

• Nacho
• Acorn
• Canon
• Phony
• Achoo
• Alloy
• Aloha
• Annoy
• Cacao
• Coach
• Cocoa
• Holly
• Loach
• Local
• Nylon

• Colony
• Honcho
• Anyhoo
• Cannon
• Canola
• Canyon
• Cloaca
• Cocoon
• Coolly
• Honcho
• Yoohoo

• HALCYON (pangram)
• Loyally
• Locally
• alcohol

• Callaloo
• Colcannon
• Nonlocal

(Note: the NYT word list may vary slightly, but these are the core playable options.)

Reflections on Today’s Puzzle

Compared to other recent grids, this one was elegant and balanced. The pangram HALCYON stood out as the centerpiece, rewarding solvers who experimented with less common letter pairings. The puzzle also offered a nice mix of simple filler words (con, loan, halo) and more advanced finds (colony, phony, honcho).

What I loved most was the way the puzzle evoked a mood: the word HALCYON itself sets a tone of calm and tranquility, which felt fitting as the crown jewel of the day’s solve.

Takeaway from Today’s Puzzle

If you found HALCYON, congratulations — you likely reached the “Genius” level today. Even if you only uncovered part of the word set, remember that Spelling Bee is as much about learning as it is about scoring.

Each puzzle teaches us to spot patterns, stretch our vocabulary, and, above all, enjoy the process of discovery. And today, the joy centered on the beautifully peaceful pangram HALCYON.

 Did you land on HALCYON early, or did it sneak up on you after working through the smaller words? Share your journey in the comments!