The NYT Spelling Bee for 5 December 2025 challenges you to build words of four or more letters that must include the center letter E. Today’s hive mixes two vowels with a cluster of consonants, making some obvious stems and a few deceptive dead-ends.

About today’s puzzle

The center letter is E, surrounded by A, M, B, N, I, and C. That gives two vowels (A, I) and several consonants that form useful pairs (M/N, B/C). Overall the hive felt open enough to find many common words, but also picky — several tempting prefixes won’t work without that required E.

NYT Spelling Bee Words and Answers: 5 December 2025

Here’s a best-effort list of words that fit today’s rules. Keep in mind: some are rare or unusual, so the official NYT list may vary.

  • ambiance
  • cabmen
  • cinema
  • menace
  • amine
  • anime
  • mince
  • mien
  • mine
  • mane
  • mean
  • name
  • beam
  • bean
  • bane
  • been
  • amen
  • came
  • cane
  • acne

Pangram of the day

Ambience (also spelled ambiance) is today’s pangram — it uses every letter in the hive while including the required center letter E. The word strings together A–M–B–I–E–N–C–E (or A–M–B–I–A–N–C–E for the variant), which makes it satisfy the “use-all-letters” rule. Fun fact: both spellings are accepted in English usage, so either version comfortably serves as the full-hive word.

Quick tactics for any puzzle

  • Start with the center letter
  • Play with prefixes and suffixes
  • Anagram your discoveries
  • Use repeated letters
  • Begin with easy 4-letter words

Final thoughts

Great work making it this far — this hive rewarded both quick hits and patient anagramming. Tell me how many words you found today, and whether you spotted ambience/ambiance as the full-hive word!