Saturday, December 14, 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: 1

Maximum Puzzle Score: 196

Number of Answers: 43

Points Needed for Genius: 137

Genius requires between 20 and 37 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 77% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 67% of the remaining points to reach genius.

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 196 was in the 65th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 12, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 43 possible answers rank it in the 62nd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 12, 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 7-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on December 13, 2024.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.4.
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 189
  • loll 180
  • toot 173
  • naan 165
  • nana 165
  • lilt 130
  • till 130
  • tilt 130
  • tint 126
  • mama 121
  • mamma 121
  • nene 119
  • acacia 115
  • acai 115
  • onto 114
  • toon 114
  • anal 110
  • onion 109
  • anon 107
  • boob 106
  • booboo 106
  • olio 103
  • papa 102
  • baba 101
  • lull 101
  • lulu 101
  • dodo 100
  • mitt 100
  • poop 100
  • tact 100
  • allay 97
  • ally 97
  • call 97
  • calla 97
  • ratatat 97
  • tart 97
  • tartar 97
  • attar 96
  • tatty 96
  • cocci 95
  • tattoo 95
  • tutu 95
  • ammo 94
  • momma 94
  • mono 94
  • moon 94
  • epee 93
  • peep 93
  • loon 91
  • roar 91


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 94,418 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,364 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*:

  • achene
  • ahchoo
  • allheal
  • cachaca
  • caleche
  • cancha
  • chaconne
  • chalah
  • chaleh
  • challa
  • chalone
  • chana
  • chao
  • chela
  • chelae
  • choana
  • choanae
  • choc
  • chola
  • cholla
  • cholo
  • chon
  • clach
  • clachan
  • coalhole
  • cohoe
  • concha
  • conchae
  • conchal
  • concho
  • cooch
  • eche
  • echelle
  • enhalo
  • haen
  • haha
  • halacha
  • halala
  • halalah
  • hallah
  • hallal
  • hallel
  • hallo
  • halloa
  • halloo
  • halon
  • hance
  • haole
  • helo
  • holla
  • hollo
  • holloa
  • holloo
  • holo
  • holocene
  • honan
  • lahal
  • lanch
  • lochan
  • loche
  • oche
  • ochone
  • oolachan

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

ache

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Continued dull pain, as distinguished from sudden twinges, or spasmodic pain.
verb
  1. To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
  2. To cause someone or something to suffer pain.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Parsley

Etymology 3

noun
  1. The name of the Latin-script letter H.

achoo

No Definition Found.

alcohol

noun
  1. Any of a class of organic compounds (such as ethanol) containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH).
  2. Ethanol.
  3. Beverages containing ethanol, collectively.
  4. Any very fine powder.

aloha

noun
  1. Good wishes, love.
  2. An utterance of aloha (see Interjection, below).
interjection
  1. Expressing good wishes when greeting or parting from someone; hello; goodbye.

ancho

noun
  1. A broad, flat, dried poblano pepper, often ground into a powder.

cache

noun
  1. A store of things that may be required in the future, which can be retrieved rapidly, protected or hidden in some way.
  2. A fast temporary storage where recently or frequently used information is stored to avoid having to reload it from a slower storage medium.
  3. (geocaching) A container containing treasure in a global treasure-hunt game.
verb
  1. To place in a cache.

challah

noun
  1. A traditional bread eaten by Ashkenazi Jews, usually braided for the Sabbath and round for Yom Tov.
  2. The commandment to separate a portion of bread or bread dough for the cohanim (Numbers 15:17–21); in contemporary practice, the portion is burned until inedible.
  3. The portion separated in fulfillment of the above.

chance

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An opportunity or possibility.
  2. Random occurrence; luck.
  3. The probability of something happening.
  4. What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
adjective
  1. Happening by chance, casual.
adverb
  1. Perchance; perhaps.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To happen by chance, to occur.
  2. To befall; to happen to.
  3. To try or risk.
  4. To discover something by chance.
  5. (Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone.

chancel

noun
  1. The space around the altar in a church, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.

channel

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.
  2. The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
  3. The navigable part of a river.
  4. A narrow body of water between two land masses.
  5. Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.
  6. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
  7. A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.
  8. The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
  9. (communication) The part that connects a data source to a data sink.
  10. (communication) A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.
  11. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.
  12. (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.
  13. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.
  14. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.
  15. (storage) The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.
  16. (technic) The way in a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.
  17. A distribution channel
  18. A particular area for conversations on an IRC network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
  19. An obsolete means of delivering up-to-date Internet content.
  20. A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To make or cut a channel or groove in.
  2. To direct or guide along a desired course.
  3. (of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for.
  4. To follow as a model, especially in a performance.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.

clench

noun
  1. Tight grip.
  2. A seal that is applied to formed thin-wall bushings.
  3. A local chapter of the Church of the SubGenius parody religion.
verb
  1. To grip or hold fast.
  2. To close tightly.

cloche

noun
  1. A glass covering, originally bell-shaped, for garden plants to prevent frost damage and promote early growth.
  2. A bell-shaped, close-fitting women’s hat with a deep rounded crown and narrow rim.
  3. A tableware cover, often resembling a bell.
  4. An apparatus used in controlling certain aeroplanes, consisting principally of a steering column mounted with a universal joint at the base, which is bell-shaped and has attached to it the cables for controlling the wing-warping devices, elevator planes, etc.

coach

noun
  1. A wheeled vehicle, generally drawn by horse power.
  2. A passenger car, either drawn by a locomotive or part of a multiple unit.
  3. (originally Oxford University slang) A trainer or instructor.
  4. A single-decked long-distance, or privately hired, bus.
  5. The forward part of the cabin space under the poop deck of a sailing ship; the fore-cabin under the quarter deck.
  6. (chiefly US) The part of a commercial passenger airplane or train reserved for those paying the lower standard fares; the economy section.
verb
  1. To train.
  2. To instruct; to train.
  3. To study under a tutor.
  4. To travel in a coach (sometimes coach it).
  5. To convey in a coach.

cochlea

noun
  1. The complex, spirally coiled, tapered cavity of the inner ear in which sound vibrations are converted into nerve impulses.
  2. A spiral-shaped shell, especially that of a snail.

cochleae

noun
  1. The complex, spirally coiled, tapered cavity of the inner ear in which sound vibrations are converted into nerve impulses.
  2. A spiral-shaped shell, especially that of a snail.

coho

noun
  1. An anadromus and semelparous salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, found in the coastal regions of the northern Pacific Ocean, used as a symbol by several Native American tribes.

conch

noun
  1. A marine gastropod of the family Strombidae which lives in its own spiral shell.
  2. The shell of this sea animal.
  3. A musical instrument made from a large spiral seashell, somewhat like a trumpet.
  4. The semidome of an apse, or the apse itself.
verb
  1. To refine the flavour and texture of chocolate by warming and grinding, either in a traditional concher, or between rollers.
  2. To play a conch seashell as a musical instrument, by blowing through a hole made close to the origin of the spiral.
noun
  1. A machine (rather like a rotating pestle and mortar) used to refine the flavour and texture of chocolate by warming and grinding.
  2. A person who operates such a machine.

each

noun
  1. (operations) An individual item: the least quantitative unit in a grouping.
adverb
  1. For one; apiece; per.
pronoun
  1. Every one; every thing.

echelon

noun
  1. A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.
  2. A line of riders seeking maximum drafting in a crosswind, resulting in a diagonal line across the road.
  3. A formation of troops, ships, etc., in diagonal parallel rows.
verb
  1. To form troops into an echelon.
adjective
  1. Of a matrix: having undergone Gaussian elimination with the result that the leading coefficient or pivot (that is, the first nonzero number from the left) of a nonzero row is to the right of the pivot of the row above it, giving rise to a stepped appearance in the matrix.

echo

noun
  1. A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.
  2. An utterance repeating what has just been said.
  3. A device in verse in which a line ends with a word which recalls the sound of the last word of the preceding line.
  4. Sympathetic recognition; response; answer.
  5. The displaying on the command line of the command that has just been executed.
  6. The letter E in the ICAO spelling alphabet.
  7. (whist) A signal, played in the same manner as a trump signal, made by a player who holds four or more trumps (or, as played by some, exactly three trumps) and whose partner has led trumps or signalled for trumps.
  8. (whist) A signal showing the number held of a plain suit when a high card in that suit is led by one's partner.
verb
  1. (of a sound or sound waves) To reflect off a surface and return.
  2. To reflect back (a sound).
  3. (by extension) To repeat (another's speech, opinion etc.).
  4. To repeat its input as input to some other device or system.
  5. (whist) To give the echo signal, informing one's partner about cards one holds.
noun
  1. The visual image formed by an echocardiograph.
noun
  1. The use of ultrasound to produce images of the heart.

enhance

verb
  1. To lift, raise up.
  2. To augment or make something greater.
  3. To improve something by adding features.
  4. To be raised up; to grow larger.
  5. (radiology) To take up contrast agent (for an organ, tissue, or lesion).

halal

verb
  1. To make halal.
adjective
  1. Permissible, according to Muslim religious customs, to have or do.
  2. (of food) Fit to eat according to Muslim religious customs.
adverb
  1. In a halal manner; in accordance with Muslim religious customs.

hale

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Health, welfare.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To drag or pull, especially forcibly.

hall

noun
  1. A corridor; a hallway.
  2. A meeting room.
  3. A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
  4. A building providing student accommodation at a university.
  5. The principal room of a secular medieval building.
  6. Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.
  7. A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
  8. A living room.

halo

noun
  1. A circular band of coloured light, visible around the sun or moon etc., caused by reflection and refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere.
  2. A cloud of gas and other matter surrounding and captured by the gravitational field of a large diffuse astronomical object, such as a galaxy or cluster of galaxies.
  3. Anything resembling this band, such as an effect caused by imperfect developing of photographs.
  4. Nimbus, a luminous disc, often of gold, around or over the heads of saints, etc., in religious paintings.
  5. The metaphorical aura of glory, veneration or sentiment which surrounds an idealized entity.
  6. (iconography) a circular annulus ring, frequently luminous, often golden, floating above the head
  7. A circular brace used to keep the head and neck in position.
  8. A rollbar placed in front of the driver, used to protect the cockpit of a open cockpit racecar.
verb
  1. To encircle with a halo.

heal

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A spell or ability that restores hit points or removes a status ailment.
  2. Health
verb
  1. To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.
  2. To become better or healthy again.
  3. To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.
  2. To become better or healthy again.
  3. To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.
verb
  1. To hide, conceal, and keep secret, especially for a secret society (such as the masons).
  2. (now especially in the phrase "hele in") To cover or conceal (a seedling, plant, roots, etc).

heel

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.
  2. The part of a shoe's sole which supports the foot's heel.
  3. The rear part of a sock or similar covering for the foot.
  4. The part of the palm of a hand closest to the wrist.
  5. (usually in the plural) A woman's high-heeled shoe.
  6. The back, upper part of the stock.
  7. The last or lowest part of anything.
  8. A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.
  9. The base of a bun sliced in half lengthwise.
  10. A contemptible, inconsiderate or thoughtless person.
  11. A headlining wrestler regarded as a "bad guy," whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits and demonstrates characteristics of a braggart and a bully.
  12. The cards set aside for later use in a patience or solitaire game.
  13. Anything resembling a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob.
  14. The lower end of a timber in a frame, as a post or rafter.
  15. (specifically) The obtuse angle of the lower end of a rafter set sloping.
  16. (workman slang) A cyma reversa.
  17. The short side of an angled cut.
  18. The part of a club head's face nearest the shaft.
  19. The lower end of the bit (cutting edge) of an axehead; as opposed to the toe (upper end).
  20. In a carding machine, the part of a flat nearest the cylinder.
verb
  1. To follow at somebody's heels; to chase closely.
  2. To add a heel to, or increase the size of the heel of (a shoe or boot).
  3. To kick with the heel.
  4. To perform by the use of the heels, as in dancing, running, etc.
  5. To arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting.
  6. To hit (the ball) with the heel of the club.
  7. To make (a fair catch) standing with one foot forward, the heel on the ground and the toe up.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The act of inclining or canting from a vertical position; a cant.
verb
  1. To incline to one side; to tilt.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.
  2. To become better or healthy again.
  3. To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.
verb
  1. To hide, conceal, and keep secret, especially for a secret society (such as the masons).
  2. (now especially in the phrase "hele in") To cover or conceal (a seedling, plant, roots, etc).

hell

No Definition Found.

hellhole

noun
  1. A place of intense hatred, misery, or turmoil.

hello

noun
  1. "Hello!" or an equivalent greeting.
verb
  1. To greet with "hello".
interjection
  1. A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence.
  2. A greeting used when answering the telephone.
  3. A call for response if it is not clear if anyone is present or listening, or if a telephone conversation may have been disconnected.
  4. Used sarcastically to imply that the person addressed or referred to has done something the speaker or writer considers to be foolish.
  5. An expression of puzzlement or discovery.

hence

adverb
  1. From here, from this place, away
  2. From the living or from this world
  3. (of a length of time) in the future from now
  4. As a result; therefore, for this reason

henna

noun
  1. A shrub, Lawsonia inermis, having fragrant reddish flowers
  2. A reddish plant substance, prepared from the dried leaves of this plant, used for temporary tattoos and hair coloring. Hair colorings range from bright red to earth brown to near black.
  3. A rich reddish-brown colour.
verb
  1. To dye or tattoo with henna.
adjective
  1. Of a rich reddish-brown colour.

hole

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure.
  2. (heading) In games.
  3. An excavation pit or trench.
  4. A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
  5. A container or receptacle.
  6. In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
  7. A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
  8. An orifice, in particular the anus. When used with shut it always refers to the mouth.
  9. (particularly in the phrase "get one's hole") Sex, or a sex partner.
  10. (with "the") Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.
  11. An undesirable place to live or visit; a hovel.
  12. Difficulty, in particular, debt.
  13. A chordless cycle in a graph.
verb
  1. To make holes in (an object or surface).
  2. (by extension) To destroy.
  3. To go into a hole.
  4. To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.
  5. To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Entire, undivided.
  2. Sound, uninjured, healthy.
  3. (of food) From which none of its constituents has been removed.
  4. As yet unworked.

honcho

noun
  1. Boss, leader
verb
  1. To lead or manage.

hone

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A sharpening stone composed of extra-fine grit used for removing the burr or curl from the blade of a razor or some other edge tool.
  2. A machine tool used in the manufacture of precision bores.
verb
  1. To sharpen with a hone; to whet.
  2. To use a hone to produce a precision bore.
  3. To refine or master (a skill).
  4. To make more acute, intense, or effective.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A kind of swelling in the cheek.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To grumble.
  2. To pine, lament, or long.

hooch

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Alcoholic liquor, especially inferior or illicit whisky.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A thatched hut, CHU, or any simple dwelling.

leach

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
  2. A tub or vat for leaching ashes, bark, etc.
  3. A jelly-like sweetmeat popular in the fifteenth century.
noun
  1. An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of class Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
  2. A person who derives profit from others in a parasitic fashion.
  3. A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.
noun
  1. A physician.
  2. (Heathenry) A healer.
noun
  1. The vertical edge of a square sail.
  2. The aft edge of a triangular sail.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid.
  2. To part with soluble constituents by percolation.

lech

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A strong, lecherous desire or craving.
  2. A lecher.
verb
  1. To behave lecherously

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The capstone of a cromlech.

leech

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of class Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
  2. A person who derives profit from others in a parasitic fashion.
  3. A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.
verb
  1. To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.
  2. To drain (resources) without giving back.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A physician.
  2. (Heathenry) A healer.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To treat, cure or heal.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. The vertical edge of a square sail.
  2. The aft edge of a triangular sail.

loach

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A bottom-feeding freshwater fish in the superfamily or suborder Cobitoidea.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Acronym of light observation helicopter.

loch

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A lake.
  2. A bay or arm of the sea.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A medicine in a soft form taken by licking; a lambative, a linctus.

nacho

noun
  1. A single tortilla chip from a dish of nachos.

nonchalance

noun
  1. Indifference; carelessness; coolness; disregard, detachment.