Monday, December 30, 2019

Answers to yesterday's bee


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

  • airball
  • alibi
  • aria
  • arid
  • aril
  • baba
  • bail
  • bald
  • ball
  • ballad
  • barb
  • bard
  • bazaar
  • bilabial
  • billiard
  • blab
  • blizzard
  • brad
  • braid
  • briar
  • bridal
  • dial
  • drab
  • iliad
  • labia
  • labial
  • laid
  • lair
  • lard
  • liar
  • lira
  • lizard
  • rabbi
  • rabid
  • radar
  • radial
  • radii
  • raid
  • rail
  • railbird
  • razz
  • rial
  • ribald


Number of Pangrams: 1

Maximum Puzzle Score: 155

Number of Answers: 43

Points Needed for Genius: 109

Genius requires between 17 and 38 words. You need at least a 6-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 78% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 67% of the remaining points to reach genius.



How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

Today's score of 155 was the in the 59th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 26, 2019.
The highest score ever was 444 on April 6, 2019.
The lowest score ever was 50 on May 17, 2019.

This puzzle's 43 possible answers rank it in the 70th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 26, 2019.
The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
The lowest number of answers was 21 on August 5, 2018.

It takes a 6-letter word for genius. This is pretty common.



Haven't I seen these letters before?

Hover over a letter to see its first and most recent appearance in the Bee!



Haven't I seen these words before?

The most common words in the Bee are

  • loll 52
  • toot 49
  • naan 46
  • nana 46
  • noon 43
  • array 37
  • ratatat 37
  • tart 37
  • tartar 37
  • attar 36
  • call 35
  • calla 35
  • tatty 35
  • allay 34
  • ally 34
  • anal 33
  • lilt 33
  • root 33
  • roto 33
  • rotor 33
  • till 33
  • tilt 33
  • toro 33
  • tort 33
  • trot 33
  • loot 31
  • lotto 31
  • nanny 31
  • natant 31
  • poop 31
  • toll 31
  • tool 31
  • tint 30
  • onto 29
  • radar 29
  • toon 29
  • coot 28
  • mono 28
  • moon 28
  • baba 27
  • itty 27
  • nene 26
  • tact 26
  • tall 26
  • loon 25
  • aria 24
  • ball 24
  • blab 24
  • hath 24
  • illy 24


Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

You may be wondering why these words aren't here*:

  • aalii
  • abba
  • abri
  • alar
  • alba
  • albizia
  • albizzia
  • alidad
  • arriba
  • baal
  • baidar
  • baiza
  • barbal
  • barilla
  • bazar
  • bazz
  • biali
  • biradial
  • brail
  • braza
  • brazil
  • briard
  • dada
  • darb
  • darbar
  • drail
  • ilia
  • ilial
  • izar
  • izard
  • izzard
  • laari
  • labara
  • labra
  • labral
  • laird
  • lall
  • lari
  • lazar
  • liard
  • liblab
  • libra
  • lidar
  • radialia
  • raia
  • razzia
  • zaida
  • zariba

*Because the New York Times considers them obscure or offensive.