The New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle for August 28, 2025 gave us an intriguing set of letters: C in the middle, with A, T, E, V, O, and N on the outer ring. At first glance, the mix felt a bit vowel-heavy, but with some persistence, the puzzle revealed its crown jewel — the pangram COVENANT.

How I Solved Today’s Puzzle

When I first looked at the grid, I began with my tried-and-true approach:

1. Spot the shortest words – Right away, three-letter words like cat, can, con, ton, van, one, and ace popped into place. These help build momentum.

2. Look for clusters and endings – I noticed “-ate” and “-ton” could create longer words. This led me to tone, cone, once, vote, and note.

3. Work around C – Since every word needs to use the central letter, I tested words starting with C. That produced cave, coat, cent, cite, and cone.

4. Test all letters for pangram – Finally, I began shuffling every available letter together. That’s when the word COVENANT clicked — the perfect pangram, using all seven letters.

Today’s Pangram

COVENANT

A covenant is a formal agreement, contract, or promise. Beyond being a meaningful word, it was deeply satisfying to uncover since it ties together the entire hive.

Word List for August 28, 2025

Here are the words I found in today’s puzzle (every one includes the central C):

4-letter words:

• cone
• coat
• cave
• cent
• cite
• once
• vote
• note
• acne
• taco
• tact

• enact
• coven
• canoe
• tacet
• octet
• ocean
• nonce
• covet
• canna
• cacao

• vacant
• cooing
• accent
• avocet
• cancan
• cannon
• cannot
• canton
• caveat
• cocoon
• cotton
• octave
• octane
• vacate

• conative
• concoct
• toccata
• ecotone
• convent
• convene
• connect
• connote
• content
• canteen
• cantata
• acetate
• acetone

• covenant (pangram)

• cetacean

• concatenate

• cotenant

Some rare dictionary inclusions may also be playable in the official Bee, but this set represents the core finds.

Strategies That Helped

• Anchor with the C – Starting most guesses with C gave me reliable progress, since it’s required in every solution.

• Explore common suffixes – Adding endings like -ate, -ant, -ent, and -ton extended smaller words into larger ones.

• Shuffle constantly – The pangram only clicked once I rearranged the entire set several times.

Reflections on Today’s Puzzle

This puzzle struck a nice balance. The short words gave easy entry points, while longer words like vacant and octave required a bit more thought. The pangram covenant was especially rewarding because it wasn’t immediately obvious — it took persistence and pattern recognition to find.

That’s the joy of Spelling Bee: it keeps you hooked with the chase for words you know are hiding there.

Did You Spot the Pangram?

The August 28, 2025 Spelling Bee puzzle delivered a fun challenge anchored by the pangram covenant. Solving it step by step — from simple three-letter entries to the all-encompassing pangram — was both satisfying and engaging.

If you love solving pangrams and want to practice daily, the Spelling Better app is the perfect companion. With it, you can:

• Play 1 vs 1 duels with friends.

• Join group quizzes to compete live.

• Solve daily pangrams with flashcards and progress tracking.

Until tomorrow’s Bee — happy spelling, and celebrate today’s win with the word of the day: COVENANT.