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.
Stacked and Solved: NYT Spelling Bee 23 September 2026 — DIZZYINGLY
A Z in the hive usually means trouble. Today it means two of them — because the pangram not only uses the Z, it uses it twice, and then keeps going for another five letters. At ten letters, this is one of the longest pangrams the Bee serves up all year.
The good news: long pangrams are built, not found. And this one is built out of parts you already know.
Tap a letter to filter the word list
How I solved it
The Z has almost nowhere to go
Z is the rarest letter in written English, and in short words it clusters into a handful of familiar shapes. With I as the centre letter and no other vowel on the board, exactly one of them was available:
That gave me the engine of the word before I'd found the word itself. Add the D and Y already sitting in the ring and a five-letter answer falls out: DIZZY.
Five letters down, two to go
DIZZY accounts for D, I, Z and Y. Checking what was left over: N, L, G. Three consonants, no vowel among them.
You cannot bolt three bare consonants onto the front of a word — but you can absolutely bolt them onto the back, because English has two suffixes that are made of almost nothing else.
I stacked the endings
Instead of hunting one long word, I assembled it. Press through and watch the hive empty out:
Ten letters. All seven tiles. Adjective to participle to adverb, one suffix at a time.
When the leftover letters are all consonants, they're a suffix, not a prefix. And suffixes stack — if –ING doesn't use them all up, try adding –LY on top.
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. The pangram is marked ✦.
Word of the day
Idyll
noun · from the Greek eidyllion, a little picture
eidyllion — literally, a little picture
A short poem or prose piece describing a scene of rural peace — shepherds, streams, the uncomplicated countryside — and, by extension, any stretch of life so pleasant it feels staged.
What to carry into tomorrow
- Z has one job per hive. With only one vowel available, the Z cluster is effectively pre-decided. Find it and you've found the core of the pangram.
- Leftover consonants mean a suffix. N, L and G can't open a word. They can only follow one.
- Suffixes stack. –ING and –LY together add five letters to a five-letter root. That's how a ten-letter pangram comes out of a seven-tile hive.
- Build in stages, don't guess in one leap. DIZZY → DIZZYING → DIZZYINGLY is three easy steps. Searching for a ten-letter word cold is nearly impossible.
- Y earns its keep twice. DIZZYINGLY uses Y at both ends. Letters repeat freely, and the Y is often the one doing it.
Centre I · Outer Z Y N L G D · Pangram DIZZYINGLY
See you at tomorrow's hive.