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.
No Wasted Letters: NYT Spelling Bee 29 September 2026 — VETOING
Today's hive is stuffed with –ING words. GIVING, VOTING, VETTING, VENTING, VEINING, INVITING, EVENING — you could fill half a page before noticing that none of them is the answer.
The pangram is in there, and it's a perfect one: seven letters, seven tiles, each used exactly once. Which means the very thing that makes all those other –ING words easy to find is also what disqualifies them.
Tap a letter to filter the word list
How I solved it
Perfect means no waste
A perfect pangram can't afford a single repeated letter. Seven tiles, seven slots, nothing spare. That turns the whole board into a filter — and most of today's long words fail it on sight.
Run any of them through the test:
a letter used twice tile covered tile never used
Every one of those words burns a slot on a letter it already has — and a perfect pangram can't. So the answer had to be a four-letter root plus –ING, where the root uses the remaining four tiles once each.
Three letters spent, four to place
–ING takes I, N and G. That leaves exactly V, E, T, O — and the root has to use all four, in some order, with no repeats.
Four letters. Not many arrangements survive being said out loud.
The near-twin trap
VOTING was already on my list, and it's tempting. V, O, T plus –ING. It sounds right. But count the tiles:
VOTING is a fine word and a terrible pangram. Put the E back where it belongs and the root becomes VETO — the one arrangement of V, E, T, O that's actually a word. VETO + ING = VETOING. Seven letters, seven tiles, nothing doubled, nothing missing.
When you're chasing a perfect pangram, stop looking for the best word and start looking for the one that spends every letter exactly once. Rule out anything that repeats.
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 perfect pangram is the filled amber one.
Word of the day
Ogive
noun · the pointed arch — and everything else shaped like it
Architecture, ballistics and statistics, all reaching for the same word. Switch between them:
What to carry into tomorrow
- Perfect pangrams punish repetition. If a candidate doubles any letter, it is not the answer. That single rule eliminates most of today's –ING words instantly.
- Subtract the suffix, then count. –ING costs three tiles. Whatever remains must form the root exactly, with nothing left over and nothing reused.
- Beware the near-twin. VOTING and VETOING differ by one letter, and only one of them counts. Always check the tile count, not the sound.
- Four letters, few options. Once you're down to a four-letter root, you can brute-force it in your head. The hard part is getting there.
- A crowded list can be a distraction. Fourteen long words on the board today, and only one is the pangram. Volume is not progress.
Centre V · Outer N T O E I G · Perfect pangram VETOING
See you at tomorrow's hive.