Every New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle comes with its own rhythm—some feel slow and methodical, while others open up with surprising speed once a key pattern appears. Today’s hive, built around the center letter I and the outer letters F, X, L, E, B, A, turned out to be one of those unexpectedly satisfying puzzles. With a good mixture of consonants and a strong vowel backbone, it offered just enough challenge to make the final pangram discovery feel genuinely rewarding.

Here’s a full breakdown of how I approached the puzzle, how I uncovered the pangram FIXABLE, and the complete list of valid words that emerged along the way.

 Analyzing the Letter Set

The first step in solving any Spelling Bee puzzle is understanding the letter dynamics. Today’s set included:

• Center (mandatory) letter: I

• Other letters: F, X, L, E, B, A

Right away, this felt like a promising board. The presence of A, E, and I meant I could experiment with multiple vowel combinations. Meanwhile, consonants like F, B, and L often create strong word structures. X, of course, is the wildcard: it limits possibilities but also signals that rare or high-value words might be hiding.

 Starting With the Basics

I always warm up by finding short, obvious words. This helps me get a feel for the available letter patterns—especially important on a board involving tricky consonants like X.

Some of the first words I found were:

• life

• file

• fail

• bail

• flea

• leaf

• able (not valid—no I)

• lie

These small discoveries helped me map out the phonetic possibilities: “-ile,” “-ail,” “-ifle,” and “-able” patterns. I also noticed that many words could expand with an extra letter, like file → fillet (not valid) or bail → bailed (not allowed; past tense often blocked).

 Chasing the Pangram

Once I felt confident with the letter set, it was time to search for the pangram.

A pangram must:

1. Contain every letter in the hive at least once

2. Include the mandatory letter I

3. Be a valid English word

I began by combining the strongest consonants with the vowels:

• “flexi…”

• “fixa…”

• “axle…”

• “liable…” (close, but missing F and X)

Then suddenly it clicked:

FIXABLE

Every required letter is present:

F – I – X – A – B – L – E

Not only that, but it’s a beautifully clean pangram—easy to recognize, meaningful, and perfectly aligned with the letter set. “Fixable” also feels exactly like the kind of pangram the NYT puzzle creators love: modern, functional, and logical.

Once the pangram fell into place, the rest of the puzzle opened up quickly.

Bee answer key All Possible Words Found Today

Here is the full list of valid words that can be formed using today’s letters while requiring the center letter I.

Pangram

• FIXABLE (PANGRAM)

Longer Words

• fixable

• axillae
• bailiff
• biaxial
• billable
• bilabial
• fallible
• fillable
• flexible
• libelee

Medium Words

• axile

• exile

• filial
• labile

• flail

• affix

• alexia
• axial
• axilla
• bilie
• belief
• bible
• labia
• labial
• liable
• libel

Short Words (4–5 letters)

• file

• life

• lief

• fail

• flab

• flea

• leaf

• bail

• alif

• bile

• biff
• bill
• fief
• fife
• fill
• ibex

(Note: some rare or variant forms may not be accepted depending on the word list used.)

What Made Today’s Puzzle Unique

Today’s Spelling Bee puzzle was one of those perfectly balanced grids—inviting, slightly tricky, and thoroughly enjoyable. The presence of the letter X created just enough challenge to make the pangram hunt satisfying, and the discovery of FIXABLE tied everything together beautifully.

Boards like this remind me why the Spelling Bee is such a compelling daily ritual. Each puzzle is a mix of logic, language intuition, and a slow unfolding of possibilities. And today’s puzzle, with its clear and clever pangram, was a memorable one.