Saturday, December 16, 2023

Answers to yesterday's bee


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

  • ceiling
  • chilling
  • chinning
  • cinching
  • clenching
  • clinching
  • cling
  • clinging
  • egging
  • engine
  • gelee
  • gelling
  • gene
  • genie
  • genii
  • ghee
  • gigging
  • giggle
  • giggling
  • gill
  • gilling
  • ginning
  • glee
  • glen
  • heeling
  • henge
  • high
  • hilling
  • hinge
  • hinging
  • icing
  • inching
  • inclining
  • inning
  • leeching
  • legging
  • liege
  • lining
  • negligee
  • negligence
  • neigh
  • neighing
  • niggle
  • niggling
  • nigh


Number of Pangrams: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 281

Number of Answers: 45

Points Needed for Genius: 197

Genius requires between 24 and 37 words. You need at least a 8-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 79% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 66% of the remaining points to reach genius.



How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

Today's score of 281 was in the 92nd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 13, 2023.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 45 possible answers rank it in the 68th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 13, 2023.
The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
The lowest number of answers was 16 on March 27, 2023.

It takes a 8-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

  • noon 159
  • loll 155
  • toot 147
  • naan 139
  • nana 139
  • lilt 119
  • till 119
  • tilt 119
  • tint 107
  • mama 103
  • mamma 103
  • nene 99
  • acacia 97
  • acai 97
  • onto 95
  • toon 95
  • anal 92
  • lull 92
  • lulu 92
  • call 89
  • calla 89
  • olio 89
  • dodo 88
  • onion 88
  • poop 88
  • tatty 88
  • anon 87
  • boob 87
  • booboo 87
  • mitt 87
  • allay 86
  • ally 86
  • papa 85
  • baba 83
  • ratatat 83
  • tart 83
  • tartar 83
  • array 82
  • attar 82
  • loon 82
  • radar 82
  • nanny 81
  • cocci 79
  • epee 79
  • mono 79
  • moon 79
  • nada 79
  • peep 79
  • coot 78
  • loom 78


Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

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

  • celling
  • chinching
  • ching
  • chining
  • ciggie
  • cleg
  • eching
  • engining
  • geeing
  • genic
  • genning
  • ghillie
  • gieing
  • gien
  • gighe
  • gillie
  • ginch
  • gingeli
  • gingelli
  • gingili
  • gingilli
  • gleg
  • heigh
  • heiling
  • helling
  • hieing
  • higgle
  • higgling
  • igging
  • ingle
  • leching
  • leggin
  • licencing
  • lichening
  • lignin
  • ling
  • neglige
  • niching
  • nighing
  • nilling

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