Saturday, September 7, 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: 301

Number of Answers: 55

Points Needed for Genius: 211

Genius requires between 26 and 48 words. You need at least a 9-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.

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 301 was in the 94th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on July 29, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 55 possible answers rank it in the 86th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on August 28, 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 a 9-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on July 14, 2024.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 6.0.
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 179
  • loll 172
  • toot 164
  • naan 159
  • nana 159
  • lilt 128
  • till 128
  • tilt 128
  • tint 121
  • mama 114
  • mamma 114
  • acacia 110
  • acai 110
  • nene 109
  • onto 106
  • toon 106
  • anal 105
  • onion 104
  • boob 103
  • booboo 103
  • anon 102
  • lull 101
  • lulu 101
  • olio 100
  • baba 98
  • papa 97
  • call 96
  • calla 96
  • mitt 96
  • poop 96
  • dodo 95
  • allay 94
  • ally 94
  • ratatat 94
  • tart 94
  • tartar 94
  • tatty 94
  • attar 93
  • cocci 92
  • tact 91
  • mono 90
  • moon 90
  • nanny 90
  • loon 89
  • radar 89
  • tattoo 89
  • tutu 89
  • epee 88
  • peep 88
  • array 87


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 90,193 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,228 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*:

  • amain
  • amanita
  • amanitin
  • amboina
  • amia
  • amin
  • ammino
  • ammoniation
  • amnia
  • amnion
  • amotion
  • animati
  • animato
  • animi
  • antiatom
  • antiman
  • antinomian
  • atonia
  • attaint
  • babbitt
  • bambini
  • bambino
  • bani
  • banian
  • bibb
  • bima
  • bimbo
  • bimini
  • binit
  • binman
  • bint
  • biont
  • bitt
  • bombination
  • boniato
  • bonita
  • imbibition
  • imino
  • inanition
  • inia
  • inion
  • inti
  • intima
  • intomb
  • mammati
  • manito
  • matin
  • mattin
  • mina
  • momi
  • monition
  • monotint
  • naoi
  • natation
  • ninon
  • niton
  • nomina
  • nomoi
  • obia
  • tain
  • tian
  • tinman
  • titania
  • titbit
  • titi
  • titian
  • titman
  • toit

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

abomination

noun
  1. An abominable act; a disgusting vice; a despicable habit.
  2. The feeling of extreme disgust and hatred
  3. A state that excites detestation or abhorrence; pollution.
  4. That which is abominable, shamefully vile; an object that excites disgust and hatred; very often with religious undertones.

ambit

noun
  1. The sphere or area of control and influence of something.
  2. A circuit, or a boundary around a property.
  3. The extent of actions, thoughts, or the meaning of words, etc.

ambition

noun
  1. Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
  2. An object of an ardent desire.
  3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
  4. A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
  5. The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
verb
  1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

amino

noun
  1. The amine functional group.
adjective
  1. Relating to an amine.

ammonia

noun
  1. A gaseous compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, NH3, with a pungent smell and taste.
  2. A solution of this compound in water used domestically as a cleaning fluid.

amnio

noun
  1. Amniocentesis

anima

noun
  1. The soul or animating principle of a living thing, especially as contrasted with the animus.
  2. (Jungian psychology) The inner self (not the external persona) of a person that is in touch with the unconscious as opposed to the persona.
  3. (Jungian psychology) The unconscious feminine aspect of a person.

animation

noun
  1. The act of animating, or giving life or spirit.
  2. (in the sense of a cartoon) The technique of making inanimate objects or drawings appear to move in motion pictures or computer graphics; the object (film, computer game, etc.) so produced
  3. The state of being lively, brisk, or full of spirit and vigor; vivacity; spiritedness
  4. The condition of being animate or alive.
  5. Conversion from the inanimate to animate grammatical category

anion

noun
  1. A negatively charged ion.

annotation

noun
  1. A critical or explanatory commentary or analysis
  2. A comment added to a text
  3. The process of writing such comment or commentary
  4. Metadata added to a document or program
  5. Information relating to the genetic structure of sequences of bases

anoint

verb
  1. To smear or rub over with oil or an unctuous substance; also, to spread over, as oil.
  2. To apply oil to or to pour oil upon, etc., as a sacred rite, especially for consecration.
  3. To choose or nominate somebody for a leading or otherwise important position, especially formally or officially, or as an intended successor.
  4. To mark somebody as an official ruler, especially a king or queen, as a part of a religious ceremony.

anti

noun
  1. A person opposed to a concept or principle.
adjective
  1. Opposed to something.
  2. That has a torsion angle between 90° and 180°
preposition
  1. Alternative form of anti-

attain

verb
  1. To gain (an object or desired result).
  2. To reach or come to, by progression or motion; to arrive at (a place, time, state, etc.).
  3. To come or arrive, by motion, growth, bodily exertion, or efforts toward a place, object, state, etc.
  4. To get at the knowledge of.
  5. To reach in excellence or degree.
  6. To reach a person after being behind them.

bait

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.
  2. Food containing poison or a harmful additive to kill animals that are pests.
  3. Anything which allures; something used to lure or entice someone or something into doing something
  4. A portion of food or drink, as a refreshment taken on a journey; also, a stop for rest and refreshment.
verb
  1. To attract with bait; to entice.
  2. To affix bait to a trap or a fishing hook or fishing line.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To set dogs on (an animal etc.) to bite or worry; to attack with dogs, especially for sport.
  2. To intentionally annoy, torment, or threaten by constant rebukes or threats; to harass.
  3. To feed and water (a horse or other animal), especially during a journey.
  4. (of a horse or other animal) To take food, especially during a journey.
  5. (of a person) To stop to take a portion of food and drink for refreshment during a journey.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To flap the wings; to flutter as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey.

Etymology 4

adjective
  1. Obvious; blatant.
  2. Well-known; famous; renowned.

biota

noun
  1. The living organisms of a region.
  2. Platycladus orientalis (syn. Biota orientalis, Oriental arborvitae).

biotin

noun
  1. A sulfur-containing member of the vitamin B complex, 5-[(3aS,4S,6aR)-2-oxohexahydro-1H-thieno[3,4-d]imidazol-4-yl]pentanoic acid, found in liver, egg yolk, milk and yeast, essential to the activity of multiple enzyme systems.

bobbin

noun
  1. A spool or cylinder around which wire is coiled.
  2. In a sewing machine, the small spool that holds the lower thread.
  3. The little rounded piece of wood at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch.
  4. (haberdashery) A fine cord or narrow braid.

bonito

noun
  1. Any of various marine fish of the genus Sarda, that are related to and resemble the tuna.
  2. A large tropical fish, the skipjack tuna, allied to the tunny, Katsuwonus pelamis.
  3. The medregal (Seriola fasciata), an edible fish of the southern of the United States and the West Indies.
  4. The cobia or crab eater (Rachycentron canadum), an edible fish of warm waters globally.

iamb

noun
  1. A metrical foot in verse consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

iambi

noun
  1. An iamb

imam

noun
  1. (usually capitalized) A Shi'ite Muslim leader.
  2. One who leads the salat prayers in a mosque.

imitation

noun
  1. The act of imitating.
  2. (attributive) A copy or simulation; something that is not the real thing.

initiation

noun
  1. The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced
  2. The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society; mode of entrance into an organized body; especially, the rite of admission into a secret society or order.
  3. The first step of transcription or of transduction.

intimation

noun
  1. The act of intimating.
  2. The thing intimated.
  3. Announcement; declaration.
  4. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference.

into

preposition
  1. To or towards the inside of.
  2. To or towards the region of.
  3. Against, especially with force or violence.
  4. Indicates transition into another form or substance.
  5. After the start of.
  6. Interested in or attracted to.
  7. Expressing the operation of multiplication.
  8. Expressing the operation of division, with the denominator given first. Usually with "goes".
  9. Investigating the subject (of).

intonation

noun
  1. The rise and fall of the voice in speaking.
  2. The act of sounding the tones of the musical scale.
  3. Singing or playing in good tune or otherwise.
  4. Reciting in a musical prolonged tone; intonating or singing of the opening phrase of a plain-chant, psalm, or canticle by a single voice, as of a priest.
  5. A thundering; thunder.

iota

noun
  1. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.
  2. A jot; a very small, insignificant quantity.

maim

noun
  1. A serious wound
verb
  1. To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

main

Etymology 1

verb
  1. Short for mainline.
  2. To mainly play a specific character, or side, during a game.
  3. Of a road: to convert into a main or primary road.
adjective
  1. Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal.
  2. Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.
  3. (of force, strength, etc.) Full, sheer, undivided.
  4. Big; angry.
  5. Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
  6. Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.
adverb
  1. Exceedingly, extremely, greatly, mightily, very, very much.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the bulk, the greater part, gross.
  2. A large cable or pipe providing utility service to an area or a building, such as a water main or electric main.
  3. Short for main course.
  4. The high seas.
  5. The mainland.
  6. Short for mainsail.
  7. (except in might and main) Force, power, strength, violent effort.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A hand or match in a game of dice.
  2. The largest throw in a match at dice; in the game of hazard, a number from one to nine called out by a person before the dice are thrown.
  3. A stake played for at dice.
  4. A sporting contest or match, especially a cockfighting match.
  5. A banker's shovel for coins.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A basket for gathering grapes.

maintain

verb
  1. To support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action.
  2. To keep up; to preserve; to uphold (a state, condition etc.).
  3. To declare or affirm (a clause) to be true; to assert.

mania

noun
  1. Violent derangement of mind; madness; insanity.
  2. Excessive or unreasonable desire; insane passion affecting one or many people; fanaticism.
  3. The state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels.

mini

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Miniature, tiny, small.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A miniskirt.
  2. A minicomputer.

minim

noun
  1. A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
  2. A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, 1/60 fluid drachm. Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9 grain (weight) of water.
  3. A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
  4. Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.
  5. The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.
  6. A little man or being; a dwarf.
  7. A small fish; a minnow.
  8. A short poetical encomium.

minima

noun
  1. The lowest limit.
  2. The smallest amount.
  3. A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).
  4. A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.
  5. The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.

minion

noun
  1. The lowest limit.
  2. The smallest amount.
  3. A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).
  4. A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.
  5. The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.
noun
  1. A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.
  2. A sycophantic follower.
  3. A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
  4. An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
  5. The size of type between nonpareil and brevier, standardized as 7-point.
adjective
  1. Favoured, beloved; "pet".

mint

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A building or institution where money (originally, only coins) is produced under government licence.
  2. A large amount of money. A vast sum or amount, etc.
  3. Any place regarded as a source of unlimited supply; the supply itself.
verb
  1. To reproduce (coins), usually en masse, under licence.
  2. To invent; to forge; to fabricate; to fashion.
adjective
  1. (with condition) Like new.
  2. In near-perfect condition; uncirculated.
  3. Unused with original gum; as issued originally.
  4. Very good.
  5. Attractive; beautiful; handsome.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any plant in the genus Mentha in the family Lamiaceae, typically aromatic with square stems.
  2. The flavouring of the plant, either a sweet, a jelly or sauce.
  3. Any plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
  4. A green colour, like that of mint.
  5. A mint-flavored candy, often eaten to sweeten the smell of the breath.
adjective
  1. Of a green colour, like that of the mint plant.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. (provincial) Intent, purpose; an attempt, try; effort, endeavor.
verb
  1. (provincial) To try, attempt; take aim.
  2. (provincial) To try, attempt, endeavor; to take aim at; to try to hit; to purpose.
  3. To hint; suggest; insinuate.

mitt

noun
  1. A mitten
  2. An oversized, protective glove such as an oven mitt or a baseball mitt.
  3. (especially in plural) A hand.

monomania

noun
  1. Excessive interest or concentration on a singular object or subject.
  2. A pathological obsession with one person, thing or idea.

motion

noun
  1. A state of progression from one place to another.
  2. A change of position with respect to time.
  3. A change from one place to another.
  4. A parliamentary action to propose something. A similar procedure in any official or business meeting.
  5. An entertainment or show, especially a puppet show.
  6. From κίνησις (kinesis); any change. Traditionally of four types: generation and corruption, alteration, augmentation and diminution, and change of place.
  7. Movement of the mind, desires, or passions; mental act, or impulse to any action; internal activity.
  8. A formal request, oral or written, made to a judge or court of law to obtain an official court ruling or order for a legal action to be taken by, or on behalf of, the movant.
  9. A movement of the bowels; the product of such movement.
  10. Change of pitch in successive sounds, whether in the same part or in groups of parts. (Conjunct motion is that by single degrees of the scale. Contrary motion is when parts move in opposite directions. Disjunct motion is motion by skips. Oblique motion is when one part is stationary while another moves. Similar or direct motion is when parts move in the same direction.)
  11. A puppet, or puppet show.
  12. A piece of moving mechanism, such as on a steam locomotive.
verb
  1. To gesture indicating a desired movement.
  2. To introduce a motion in parliamentary procedure.
  3. To make a proposal; to offer plans.

nation

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
  2. A sovereign state.
  3. An association of students based on its members' birthplace or ethnicity.
  4. A great number; a great deal.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Damnation.
adverb
  1. Extremely, very.

nimbi

noun
  1. A circle of light; a halo.
  2. A gray rain cloud.

nomination

noun
  1. An act or instance of nominating.
  2. A device or means by which a person or thing is nominated.

notation

noun
  1. The act, process, method, or an instance of representing by a system or set of marks, signs, figures, or characters.
  2. A system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in an art or science or in mathematics or logic to express technical facts or quantities.
  3. A specific note or piece of information written in such a notation.

notion

noun
  1. Mental apprehension of whatever may be known, thought, or imagined; idea, concept.
  2. A sentiment; an opinion.
  3. Sense; mind.
  4. An invention; an ingenious device; a knickknack.
  5. Any small article used in sewing and haberdashery, either for attachment to garments or as a tool, such as a button, zipper, or thimble.
  6. Inclination; intention; disposition.

obit

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Death of a person.
  2. A mass or other service held for the soul of a dead person.
  3. A record of a person's death.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. An obituary.

obtain

verb
  1. To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way.
  2. To secure (that) a specific objective or state of affairs be reached.
  3. To prevail, be victorious; to succeed.
  4. To hold; to keep, possess or occupy.
  5. To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force.

omit

verb
  1. To leave out or exclude.
  2. To fail to perform.
  3. To neglect or take no notice of.

onion

noun
  1. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
  2. The bulb of such a plant.
  3. The genus as a whole.
  4. A ball.
  5. A person from Bermuda or of Bermudian descent.

taint

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food
  2. A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish
  3. Tincture; hue; colour
  4. Infection; corruption; deprivation
  5. A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
verb
  1. To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
  2. To spoil (food) by contamination.
  3. To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
  4. To be affected with incipient putrefaction.
  5. To mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
  6. To invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
  2. An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner.
verb
  1. To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
  2. To hit or touch lightly, in tilting.
  3. To thrust ineffectually with a lance.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. The perineum.

tannin

noun
  1. Tannic acid or any of its derivatives.

tatami

noun
  1. Straw matting, in a standard size, used as a floor covering in Japanese houses

tibia

noun
  1. The inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone
  2. The second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.
  3. The third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.
  4. A musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.

tint

noun
  1. A slight coloring.
  2. A pale or faint tinge of any color; especially, a variation of a color obtained by adding white (contrast shade)
  3. A color considered with reference to other very similar colors.
  4. A shaded effect in engraving, produced by the juxtaposition of many fine parallel lines.
verb
  1. To shade, to color.

titan

noun
  1. Something or someone of very large stature, greatness, or godliness.

tomtit

noun
  1. Petroica macrocephala, the miromiro or New Zealand tit, a bird of the Petroicidae (Australasian robin) family.