On December 14, 2025, the New York Times Spelling Bee returns with another deceptively compact puzzle. As always, every accepted word must be at least four letters long and include the center letter.
About today’s puzzle
December 14’s hive gives you a very friendly mix of common consonants and multiple vowels, so once you lock in patterns like BA–, BE–, and –ABLE, words start to flow quickly. The center letter B sits at the heart of almost every good find, pushing you toward everyday vocabulary rather than obscure dictionary deep cuts.
NYT Spelling Bee words and answers: 14 December 2025
Here is a best-effort list of playable words (4 letters or more) that include the center letter B and use only today’s hive letters A, L, N, V, E, I. Some rarer entries may or may not appear in the official NYT word list.
- able
- baba
- babe
- bail
- bale
- ball
- bane
- bean
- been
- bell
- bile
- bill
- blab
- blin
- vibe
Five-letter words:
- alibi
- babel
- banal
- belie
- belle
- bevel
- bible
- blini
- label
- labia
- libel
Six-letter and longer words:
- babble
- baleen
- banana
- beanie
- enable
- labial
- labile
- liable
- nibble
- viable
- beeline
- believe
- biennia
- bivalve
- libelee
- livable
- beanball
- biennial
- bilabial
- billable
- liveable
- alienable
- available
- believable
- inalienable
Pangram of the day
“Enviable” is today’s signature pangram, using every letter in the hive at least once while anchoring itself on the required B. It works beautifully because it grows out of the common adjective “able,” then layers in N, V, and I to stretch into a satisfying, high-scoring word that feels natural once you’ve played around with –ABLE endings for a bit.
Quick tactics for this hive
- Lean into –ABLE and –IBLE endings; once “able” and “viable” show up, other longer forms like “livable” and “billable” become easier to spot.
- Start with short BA– and BE– stems (babe, bail, bean, been) to warm up your eye, then anagram around them to uncover mid-length options like “babel,” “bevel,” and “babel/bible/libel” chains.
- Watch for repeated letters; doubling B, L, or N unlocks strong plays such as “babble,” “baleen,” “beanball,” and “billable,” which quickly ramp up your score.
Final thoughts
This is a generous, vowel-rich grid that rewards methodical pattern hunting more than brute-force guessing, especially once you realize how many real words sit on top of the –ABLE/–IBLE backbone. If you made it all the way to “enviable” and the late-game heavy hitters like “alienable,” “believable,” and “inalienable,” you likely cruised well into Genius and beyond.
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