The New York Times Spelling Bee for 9 December 2025 challenges you to make words of four or more letters that must include the center letter L. Today's hive feels consonant-heavy with C, B, R, N surrounding a lone vowel A and O — deceptively flexible but tricky when hunting longer words.

About today’s puzzle

Center letter L forces every word to pivot around that consonant. The surrounding mix — C, O, B, R, A, N — combines a couple vowels with several consonant clusters, making medium-length words common but truly long finds rarer. Overall the hive felt moderately open for 4–6 letter plays but restrictive for many longer options.

NYT Spelling Bee Words and Answers: 9 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.

  • coal
  • clan
  • call
  • ball
  • loan
  • loco
  • local
  • colon
  • coral
  • carol
  • carnal
  • coronal
  • balloon

Pangram of the day

“Cornball” is today’s standout pangram because it uses every hive letter at least once while centering on L. The word contains C, O, R, N, B, A and the required L (with a double L), so it satisfies the puzzle’s requirement to include all provided letters. It’s also a fun, familiar word — slightly playful and perfectly valid — which makes finding it a satisfying aha moment.

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

Nice work digging through this hive — the C/O/B/R/A/N mix made for clever short words and one very tidy pangram. Tell me how many you found today, or shout if you spotted the pangram first!