What is a "Pangram" in the NYT Spelling Bee?
A "pangram" in the NYT Spelling Bee is a word that uses all seven of the unique letters at least once. In other words, it's a word that includes every letter in that day's puzzle. It's called a "pangram" because it mimics the concept of a pangram in the broader context of language, which is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once, like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
As an example, on June 21, 2023, the center letter was "C" and the surrounding letters were "AORTUY". With the letters "CAORTUY", two pangrams can be formed:
- AUTOCRACY
- CARRYOUT
A "perfect pangram" is a pangram that uses each letter exactly once. In Spelling Bee, a "perfect pangram" is exactly 7 letters long since there are only 7 letters in the puzzle. For example, on June 22, 2023, the letters were "EBCHIOT" which forms the perfect pangram "BIOTECH".
While every day's puzzle has at least one pangram, not every day's puzzle has a perfect pangram. In fact, perfect pangrams occur in less than half of all puzzles.