If you’ve ever played the New York Times Spelling Bee, you know how satisfying it feels to find that one word hiding in plain sight.
About today’s puzzle
Today’s Spelling Bee gives you a compact, consonant-forward set with F at the center. Words tend to form around strong stems and repeating vowels, so start with short anchors that include F and expand outward. This is the sort of grid that rewards a calm, systematic approach — find a few reliable 4- and 5-letter starters, then see which ones stretch into longer forms.
NYT Spelling Bee Answers: 25 October 2025
- leaflet
- takeoff
- toffee
- fettle
- footle
- afloat
- float
- folate
- foetal
- flake
- latke
- aloft
- loafe
- letoff
Pangram of the day
Impediment — An impediment is anything that slows or blocks progress. It can refer to a physical thing, like a fallen tree in the road, or something more intangible, like how your short stature is an impediment to becoming a professional basketball player.
Quick tactics for any puzzle
- Start with the center letter.
Since every word must include it, try building short “roots” with that letter first, then expand. - Play with prefixes and suffixes.
Look for common starters (like re-, pre-, tri-) and endings (like -er, -ry, -ing). These patterns often unlock multiple words. - Anagram your discoveries.
Once you’ve found a word, shuffle its letters around — you’ll often uncover two or three more. - Use repeated letters.
Remember, the same letter can appear more than once. Doubling letters opens up words you might otherwise overlook. - Hunt for pangrams.
Try to use all seven letters at least once. Pangrams aren’t always easy, but when you find one, it feels like striking gold.
Habits to sharpen your skills
- Begin with easy 4-letter words to get your brain moving.
- Rotate vowels and consonants through different combinations to see what “clicks.”
- Step away and return later — fresh eyes will catch words you missed.
Optional tools if you want extra help
- Pen and paper. Writing the letters down or sketching patterns can reveal hidden words.
- Word-finding apps. Great for study or practice, but use sparingly if you want to keep the challenge.
- Personal word journal. Track words you miss often — over time, you’ll train yourself to recognize them quickly.
Final Thoughts
This hive is all about momentum: a few small, confident finds (float, flake, latke) make the longer answers click into view. Play with endings and repeated vowels — the grid opens faster than you think. If you’d like, I can produce a full exhaustive solver list matched to a specific dictionary for archival use.
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