Thursday, January 26, 2023

Answers to yesterday's bee

Poll on ideas for the page!

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and patience the other day. The NYT changed the format of their Rankings pop-up, and it broke my page. Weirdly, they reverted to the old format sometime in the middle of the day.

Their new Rankings was pretty cool. Unfortunately, if they roll it out again (and I hope they do), it will break my site. I'll do a fire drill to fix the page. If by some very small chance you saved a version of the page from earlier today, please share it with me.

Now that I'm back in the code, I thought I'd see which features people are most interested in. I've put some of the most common suggestions in the poll above, but please add your own ideas too!


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

  • ability
  • alibi
  • alit
  • atilt
  • avail
  • availability
  • bail
  • bait
  • bialy
  • bilabial
  • bill
  • billy
  • illy
  • itty
  • labia
  • labial
  • lability
  • laity
  • liability
  • lilt
  • lily
  • livability
  • tail
  • tali
  • tallit
  • tibia
  • tibial
  • till
  • tilt
  • viability
  • viably
  • vial
  • villa
  • vital
  • vitality
  • vitally


Number of Pangrams: 3

Maximum Puzzle Score: 186

Number of Answers: 36

Points Needed for Genius: 130

Genius requires between 15 and 33 words. You need at least a 9-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 97% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 57% of the remaining points to reach genius.

Other days with this pangram:

  • August 2, 2021 (Center Letter: A)
  • March 6, 2019 (Center Letter: Y)
  • July 7, 2018 (Center Letter: A)



    • How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

    Today's score of 186 was in the 65th percentile of all puzzles.
    The last time there was a score this high was on January 24, 2023.
    The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
    The lowest score ever was 50 on May 17, 2019.

    This puzzle's 36 possible answers rank it in the 48th percentile of all puzzles.
    The last time there were fewer answers than this was on January 24, 2023.
    The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
    The lowest number of answers was 17 on October 2, 2022.

    It takes a 9-letter word for genius. The last time that happened was on DATE.



    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

    • noon 138
    • loll 137
    • toot 127
    • naan 113
    • nana 113
    • lilt 103
    • till 103
    • tilt 103
    • mama 86
    • mamma 86
    • tint 85
    • onto 81
    • toon 81
    • call 79
    • calla 79
    • lull 79
    • lulu 79
    • dodo 78
    • nene 78
    • boob 77
    • booboo 77
    • tatty 77
    • poop 75
    • acacia 74
    • acai 74
    • allay 74
    • ally 74
    • anal 74
    • array 74
    • olio 74
    • papa 74
    • ratatat 74
    • tart 74
    • tartar 74
    • attar 73
    • anon 72
    • loon 72
    • mitt 72
    • radar 72
    • mono 71
    • moon 71
    • loom 70
    • moll 70
    • baba 69
    • onion 69
    • coot 68
    • root 68
    • rotor 68
    • toro 68
    • tort 68


    Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

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

    • aalii
    • abbatial
    • aliya
    • availably
    • babbitt
    • balti
    • battalia
    • battily
    • biali
    • bibb
    • bilby
    • bitt
    • bittily
    • bitty
    • ilia
    • ilial
    • labiality
    • labially
    • lati
    • latilla
    • liblab
    • litai
    • tattily
    • titbit
    • titi
    • titty
    • tivy
    • vail
    • vill
    • villi
    • vita
    • vitta
    • viva
    • vivat
    • yill

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