About the pangram solver
A pangram solver searches a stored dictionary for words that use only your 7 letters, contain the required centre letter, and meet a minimum length. It is the standard helper for the New York Times Spelling Bee, which scores extra points for pangrams (words using all 7 letters at least once).
The word pangram comes from the Greek "pan gramma", meaning "every letter". In its classic sense a pangram is a sentence containing all 26 letters of the alphabet, a property prized by typographers and telegraph operators who needed a quick way to show every glyph. The Spelling Bee borrows the same idea but shrinks the alphabet to the seven letters of the day, so a Bee pangram is any single word that hits all seven. Both senses share one rule: coverage is what matters, not order or repetition, so a letter may appear many times as long as none is missing.
How it works
The solver loads a 50,000-word English dictionary once, then filters it against four constraints from your input: length, allowed letters, required centre letter, and the pangram check (uses all 7 letters at least once).
letters = {a, b, c, d, e, f, g} including centre
candidates = dict.filter(w => w.length >= 4)
.filter(w => [...w].every(c => letters.has(c)))
.filter(w => w.includes(centre))
isPangram(w) = letters.every(c => w.includes(c))
score = w.length + (isPangram ? 7 : 0)
- Allowed-letter check: every character of w must be in your 7-letter set.
- Centre letter: required by Spelling Bee rules.
- Pangram bonus: word uses all 7 distinct letters, scoring 7 extra points.
- Set membership: storing the 7 letters in a hash set makes each allowed-letter test O(1), so filtering 50,000 words stays near-instant in the browser.
Because the four filters are applied in order from cheapest to most selective (length, then letter set, then centre letter, then full pangram), the list shrinks fast and the expensive pangram check only ever runs on a small surviving pool. This is the same "filter early, filter cheap" pattern that database query planners use.
Worked example
NYT Spelling Bee letters: T (centre), A, E, I, L, O, R. Find pangrams.
- Letter set: {T, A, E, I, L, O, R}.
- Filter to 4+ letters: narrows dictionary.
- Filter to only-allowed letters: drops any word with B, C, D, etc.
- Require T (centre): keeps "tear", "tail", "alert", "later", and so on.
- Check for pangram: word must contain ALL of T, A, E, I, L, O, R at least once.
Why the bonus is so valuable: in the Spelling Bee each word scores one point if it is four letters long and otherwise scores one point per letter, and a pangram adds a flat seven points on top. A seven-letter pangram is therefore worth 7 + 7 = 14 points, more than double a non-pangram seven-letter word. Strong solvers hunt the pangram first because it both scores heavily and confirms that every required letter actually forms a word, which often unlocks shorter words built from the same stems.
Famous pangrams
| Pangram | Letters | Use |
|---|---|---|
| The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog | 33 | Standard typewriter / font test (1880s telegraph) |
| Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs | 32 | Western Union 1900s test sentence |
| The five boxing wizards jump quickly | 31 | Postcard typesetting standard |
| How vexingly quick daft zebras jump | 30 | Compact font sample |
| Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow | 29 | Used in macOS Font Book preview |
| Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz | 26 | Perfect pangram (every letter exactly once) |
| Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx | 26 | Perfect pangram using initialisms |
A "perfect pangram" uses each of the 26 letters exactly once.
Common pitfalls
- Repeated letters allowed. Spelling Bee pangrams allow letters to repeat. "tailored" is a pangram even though there is no second instance of any letter; "totalitarian" with the right 7 letters would also count.
- Centre letter mandatory. A word without the centre letter is invalid even if every other constraint passes. This trips puzzlers who paste only the outer six letters.
- Dictionary mismatch. NYT uses a curated list that excludes some obscure or offensive words. The 50,000-word base dictionary here may include words NYT rejects, and miss a few NYT accepts.
- Plural and tense forms. NYT typically accepts standard plurals (-s) and tenses (-ed, -ing) but not foreign plurals. Confirm before counting points.
- Hyphenated words. Spelling Bee rejects hyphenated forms. Filter them out manually if they appear in candidates.
- Proper nouns excluded. Names of people, places, and brands are not accepted; the bundled dictionary already filters most.
Related tools and glossary
Frequently asked questions
What is a pangram?
A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. The most famous English pangram is 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' (33 letters, every A to Z present). Pangrams are used for font samples, typewriter tests, and word puzzles like the NYT Spelling Bee.
How does the NYT Spelling Bee pangram rule work?
In NYT Spelling Bee, a pangram is a word that uses all 7 of the day's letters (the centre letter and the six outer letters) at least once. Most days have a single pangram worth 7 bonus points plus the standard length score. Some days have two or three.
Are there shorter pangrams than the fox sentence?
Yes. 'Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs' is 32 letters. 'Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow' is 29 letters. The shortest non-cheating English pangrams use about 26 letters but rely on rare words and proper nouns. 'Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz' is a 26-letter perfect pangram using each letter exactly once.
Why are pangrams used for font testing?
A type designer needs to render every letter to see how the font looks. A pangram shows all 26 lowercase letters in one short sentence, far quicker than reciting the alphabet. The fox sentence has been the unofficial standard since the 1880s telegraph era.
Sources
- New York Times, Spelling Bee daily puzzle rules.
- Howard Bergerson, Palindromes and Anagrams (Dover, 1973).
- Apple macOS Font Book, default sample text.