Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Answers to yesterday's bee


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

  • acrylic
  • afar
  • affair
  • affray
  • airily
  • airy
  • aria
  • aril
  • array
  • carry
  • carryall
  • circa
  • cirri
  • clarify
  • fair
  • fairly
  • fairy
  • farcical
  • farcically
  • flair
  • frail
  • fray
  • friar
  • friary
  • frill
  • frilly
  • lair
  • liar
  • lira
  • lyric
  • lyrical
  • lyrically
  • racial
  • racially
  • racy
  • raffia
  • rail
  • railcar
  • rally
  • rial
  • riff
  • riffraff
  • rill
  • riyal


Number of Pangrams: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 215

Number of Answers: 44

Points Needed for Genius: 151

Genius requires between 20 and 38 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 82% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 65% of the remaining points to reach genius.

Other days with this pangram:

  • July 6, 2018 (Center Letter: A)


  • How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

    Today's score of 215 was in the 77th percentile of all puzzles.
    The last time there was a score this high was on December 18, 2021.
    The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
    The lowest score ever was 50 on May 17, 2019.

    This puzzle's 44 possible answers rank it in the 69th percentile of all puzzles.
    The last time there were more answers than this was on December 18, 2021.
    The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
    The lowest number of answers was 19 on October 3, 2021.

    It takes a 7-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 116
    • noon 114
    • toot 102
    • naan 98
    • nana 98
    • lilt 84
    • till 84
    • tilt 84
    • tint 72
    • ratatat 67
    • tart 67
    • tartar 67
    • anal 66
    • attar 66
    • loon 66
    • call 64
    • calla 64
    • dodo 64
    • lull 64
    • lulu 64
    • onto 64
    • toon 64
    • tatty 63
    • mama 62
    • mamma 62
    • root 62
    • rotor 62
    • toro 62
    • tort 62
    • trot 62
    • array 61
    • nene 61
    • mono 60
    • moon 60
    • olio 60
    • allay 59
    • ally 59
    • loom 57
    • loot 57
    • lotto 57
    • moll 57
    • radar 57
    • tact 57
    • toll 57
    • tool 57
    • itty 56
    • onion 56
    • natant 55
    • papa 55
    • poop 55


    Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

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

    • acari
    • alar
    • alary
    • alfilaria
    • ariary
    • arrayal
    • aryl
    • calcar
    • calcaria
    • caracal
    • caracara
    • carl
    • carr
    • ciliary
    • clary
    • craal
    • farci
    • farcy
    • farfal
    • farl
    • fiar
    • filar
    • filaria
    • filarial
    • firry
    • flir
    • frailly
    • friarly
    • laari
    • lairy
    • lari
    • liri
    • lycra
    • racily
    • raff
    • raia
    • rarify
    • raya
    • ricrac
    • yirr

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