Saturday, August 3, 2024

Answers to yesterday's Bee

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The official answers for today's puzzle are:

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Number of Pangrams: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 151

Number of Answers: 28

Points Needed for Genius: 106

Genius requires between 14 and 25 words. You need at least an 8-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 88% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 62% of the remaining points to reach genius.

Other days with this pangram:

The button below will reveal a chart with the number of words by each letter. Red bars indicate that there is a pangram(s) starting with that letter.


How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

Today's score of 151 was in the 43rd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this low was on August 2, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 28 possible answers rank it in the 21st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were fewer answers than this was on August 2, 2024.
The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
The lowest number of answers was 16 on March 27, 2023.

It takes an 8-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on August 1, 2024.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.6.
For all Bees, the average word length has been 5.3.



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 176
  • loll 171
  • toot 160
  • naan 158
  • nana 158
  • lilt 128
  • till 128
  • tilt 128
  • tint 118
  • mama 113
  • mamma 113
  • nene 108
  • acacia 107
  • acai 107
  • anal 105
  • onto 103
  • toon 103
  • anon 101
  • boob 101
  • booboo 101
  • onion 100
  • lull 99
  • lulu 99
  • olio 99
  • papa 97
  • call 96
  • calla 96
  • poop 95
  • allay 93
  • ally 93
  • baba 93
  • dodo 93
  • mitt 93
  • tatty 93
  • ratatat 91
  • tact 91
  • tart 91
  • tartar 91
  • attar 90
  • nanny 90
  • cocci 89
  • mono 89
  • moon 89
  • radar 89
  • tutu 89
  • loon 88
  • tattoo 88
  • array 87
  • epee 87
  • peep 87


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 88,740 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,188 unique words.
Below are the distributions of the lengths of these words.



Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

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

  • avion
  • avionic
  • cavalla
  • clavi
  • clivia
  • concanavalin
  • covin
  • incivil
  • lavalava
  • nival
  • nonnaval
  • nonvolcanic
  • olivinic
  • ovoli
  • ovolo
  • ovonic
  • vaccina
  • vaccinal
  • vaccinia
  • vaccinial
  • vail
  • valonia
  • valval
  • vanillic
  • vicinal
  • vill
  • villi
  • vina
  • vinal
  • vinca
  • vinic
  • vino
  • viva
  • volva

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

anvil

noun
  1. A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
  2. An incus bone in the middle ear.
  3. A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails.
  4. The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
verb
  1. To fashion on an anvil (often used figuratively).

avail

noun
  1. Effect in achieving a goal or aim; purpose, use (now usually in negative constructions).
  2. Proceeds; profits from business transactions.
  3. An advertising slot or package.
  4. A press avail.
  5. Non-binding notice of availability for work.
  6. A readily available stock of oil.
  7. Benefit; value, profit; advantage toward success.
  8. Effort; striving.
verb
  1. To turn to the advantage of.
  2. To be of service to.
  3. To promote; to assist.
  4. To be of use or advantage; to answer or serve the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object.
  5. To provide; to make available.

avian

noun
  1. A bird.
  2. A bird-like or flying creature.
  3. (furry fandom) Someone who roleplays or describes themselves as being a bird or bird-like animal character with human characteristics.
adjective
  1. Characteristic of or pertaining to birds, or to bird-like or flying creatures.

cava

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A Spanish white sparkling wine made using the méthode champenoise.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The vena cava.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A cavity

cavil

noun
  1. A petty or trivial objection or criticism.
verb
  1. To criticise for petty or frivolous reasons.

civic

adjective
  1. Of, relating to, or belonging to a city, a citizen, or citizenship; municipal or civil.
  2. Of or relating to the citizen, or of good citizenship and its rights and duties.

civil

adjective
  1. Having to do with people and government office as opposed to the military or religion.
  2. Behaving in a reasonable or polite manner.
  3. Relating to private relations among citizens, as opposed to criminal matters.
  4. Secular.

civilian

noun
  1. A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
  2. A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity.
  3. One skilled in civil law.
  4. A student of civil law at a university or college.
adjective
  1. Not related to the military, police or other professions.

convivial

adjective
  1. Having elements of a feast or of entertainment, especially when it comes to eating and drinking, with accompanying festivity

lava

noun
  1. The molten rock ejected by a volcano from its crater or fissured sides.
  2. Magma.
  3. A shade of red, named after the volcanic lava.

naval

adjective
  1. Of or relating to a navy.
  2. Of or relating to ships in general.

nonvocal

No Definition Found.

nova

noun
  1. Any sudden brightening of a previously inconspicuous star.

oval

noun
  1. An elongated round shape resembling an egg or ellipse.
  2. A thing having such a shape, such as an arena.
  3. In a projective plane, a set of points such that no three are collinear and there is a unique tangent line at each point.
adjective
  1. Having the shape of an oval.
  2. Of or pertaining to an ovum.

vain

adjective
  1. Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason.
  2. Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying.
  3. Effecting no purpose; pointless, futile.
  4. Showy; ostentatious.

vanilla

noun
  1. Any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
  2. The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.
  3. The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.
  4. The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.
  5. Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.
  6. (sexuality) Someone who is not into fetishism; a normophile
  7. An unmodded version of a game
  8. A yellowish-white colour, like that of vanilla ice cream.
adjective
  1. (of flavor, etc.) Of vanilla.
  2. (retronym) Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.
  3. (sexuality) Not kinky, not involving BDSM.
  4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.

vanillin

noun
  1. A chemical compound, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, that is the primary constituent of vanilla.
  2. Synthetic compound used as a substitute for the extract of the vanilla bean.

vial

noun
  1. A glass vessel or bottle, especially a small tube-shaped bottle used to store medicine, perfume or other chemical.
verb
  1. To put or keep in, or as in, a vial.

villa

noun
  1. (plural "villas") A house, often larger and more expensive than average, in the countryside or on the coast, often used as a retreat.
  2. (plural "villas") A family house, often semi-detached, in a middle class street.
  3. (plural "villae") A country house, with farm buildings around a courtyard.

villain

noun
  1. A vile, wicked person.
  2. In fiction, a character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero.
  3. Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero.
verb
  1. To debase; to degrade.
noun
  1. A feudal tenant.

viol

noun
  1. A stringed instrument related to the violin family, but held in the lap between the legs like a cello, usually with C-holes, a flat back, a fretted neck and six strings, played with an underhanded bow hold.
verb
  1. To play the viol.

viola

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A stringed instrument of the violin family, somewhat larger than a violin, played under the chin, and having a deeper tone.
  2. An organ stop having a similar tone.
  3. A 10-string steel-string acoustic guitar, used in Brazilian folk music.
  4. A berimbau viola, the smallest member of the berimbau used in capoeira music.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. (botany) Any of several flowering plants, of the genus Viola, including the violets and pansies.

Etymology 3

interjection
  1. Lo, there it is; see here; ta-da; presto; behold!

violin

noun
  1. A musical four-string instrument, generally played with a bow or by plucking the string, with the pitch set by pressing the strings at the appropriate place with the fingers; also any instrument of the violin family.
  2. A violinist.
verb
  1. To play on, or as if on, a violin.

vocal

noun
  1. A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic; distinguished from a subvocal, and a nonvocal
  2. (Roman Catholic Church) A man who has a right to vote in certain elections.
adjective
  1. Of or pertaining to the voice or speech
  2. Having a voice
  3. Uttered or modulated by the voice; oral
  4. Of or pertaining to a voice sound; spoken
  5. Consisting of, or characterized by, voice, or tone produced in the larynx, which may be modified, either by resonance, as in the case of the vowels, or by obstructive action, as in certain consonants, such as v, l, etc., or by both, as in the nasals (m), (n), ng; sonant; intonated; voiced. See voice, and vowel
  6. Of or pertaining to a vowel; having the character of a vowel; vowel
  7. Loud; getting oneself heard.

vocalic

adjective
  1. Used as a vowel, as opposed to consonantal, especially in Latin.

voila

interjection
  1. Lo, there it is; see here; ta-da; presto; behold!

volcanic

noun
  1. A volcanic rock.
adjective
  1. Of or pertaining to a volcano or volcanoes
  2. Produced by a volcano, or, more generally, by igneous agencies
  3. Changed or affected by the heat of a volcano.
  4. Reminiscent of a volcano; explosive, violent, full of suppressed anger, energy etc.

volcano

noun
  1. A vent or fissure on the surface of a planet (usually in a mountainous form) with a magma chamber attached to the mantle of a planet or moon, periodically erupting forth lava and volcanic gases onto the surface.
  2. A form of firework.