Thursday, December 26, 2024

Answers to yesterday's Bee

Jump to answers for


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

Click on the arrow to show the definition.
Click outside the pop-up to close it.



Number of Pangrams: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 168

Number of Answers: 39

Points Needed for Genius: 118

Genius requires between 17 and 35 words. You need at least a 6-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 87% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 63% 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 168 was in the 51st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 25, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 39 possible answers rank it in the 51st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 25, 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 6-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on December 24, 2024.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.1.
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 190
  • loll 180
  • toot 175
  • naan 165
  • nana 165
  • lilt 130
  • till 130
  • tilt 130
  • tint 127
  • mama 122
  • mamma 122
  • nene 120
  • acacia 115
  • acai 115
  • onto 114
  • toon 114
  • anal 110
  • onion 110
  • anon 107
  • boob 107
  • booboo 107
  • olio 103
  • baba 102
  • papa 102
  • lull 101
  • lulu 101
  • poop 101
  • tact 101
  • dodo 100
  • mitt 100
  • ratatat 99
  • tart 99
  • tartar 99
  • allay 98
  • ally 98
  • attar 98
  • call 98
  • calla 98
  • tatty 97
  • tutu 97
  • cocci 96
  • tattoo 96
  • mono 95
  • moon 95
  • ammo 94
  • epee 94
  • momma 94
  • peep 94
  • loon 91
  • roar 91


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 94,959 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,373 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*:

  • airt
  • airtram
  • amauti
  • amia
  • amir
  • amrit
  • amrita
  • ariary
  • atma
  • attrit
  • aurar
  • aurum
  • ayaya
  • imaum
  • maar
  • mair
  • mammati
  • mammy
  • mara
  • maria
  • marram
  • martyry
  • matt
  • maut
  • maya
  • mura
  • murra
  • raia
  • rami
  • rammy
  • raya
  • riata
  • tamarau
  • tammy
  • tarama
  • tarty
  • tatar
  • tayra
  • timarau
  • traumata
  • tryma
  • trymata
  • tuatara
  • umma
  • urari
  • yautia
  • yttria
  • yurta

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

airy

adjective
  1. Consisting of air.
  2. Relating or belonging to air; high in air; aerial.
  3. Open to a free current of air; exposed to the air; breezy.
  4. Resembling air; thin; unsubstantial; not material; airlike.
  5. Relating to the spirit or soul; delicate; graceful.
  6. Not based on reality; having no solid foundation
  7. Light-hearted; vivacious
  8. Having an affected manner; being in the habit of putting on airs; affectedly grand.
  9. Having the light and aerial tints true to nature.

amity

noun
  1. Friendship. The cooperative and supportive relationship between people, or animals. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis.
  2. Mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship, especially between nations; peace; accord.

aria

noun
  1. A musical piece written typically for a solo voice with orchestral accompaniment in an opera or cantata.

army

noun
  1. A large, highly organized military force, concerned mainly with ground (rather than air or naval) operations.
  2. The governmental agency in charge of a state's army.
  3. A large group of people working toward the same purpose.
  4. A large group of social animals working toward the same purpose.
  5. Any multitude.

array

noun
  1. Clothing and ornamentation.
  2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
  3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
  4. Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.
  5. A large collection.
  6. Common name for matrix.
  7. Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
  8. A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
  9. A militia.
  10. A group of hedgehogs.
  11. A microarray.
verb
  1. To clothe and ornament; to adorn or attire.
  2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.
  3. To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.

arty

adjective
  1. Pretending to artistic worth; high-flown.

arum

noun
  1. A flower or plant in the genus Arum

atria

noun
  1. A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.
  2. A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.
  3. A cavity, entrance, or passage.
  4. Any enclosed sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.

atrium

noun
  1. A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.
  2. A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.
  3. A cavity, entrance, or passage.
  4. Any enclosed sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.

attar

noun
  1. An essential oil extracted from flowers.
  2. A perfume made from this oil.

aura

noun
  1. Distinctive atmosphere or quality associated with something.
  2. An invisible force surrounding a living creature.
  3. Perceptual disturbance experienced by some migraine sufferers before a migraine headache.
  4. Telltale sensation experienced by some people with epilepsy before a seizure.

imam

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

immaturity

noun
  1. Youth; the condition of being immature or not fully grown

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.

mama

noun
  1. (hypocoristic, usually childish) Mother, female parent.

mamma

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The milk-secreting organ of female humans and other mammals which includes the mammary gland and the nipple or teat; a breast; an udder. (plural: mammae)
  2. An accessory cloud like a mammary in appearance, which can form on the underside of most cloud genera

Etymology 2

noun
  1. (hypocoristic, usually childish) Mother, female parent.

mammary

noun
  1. A mamma (milk-secreting organ of a woman or a female animal).
adjective
  1. Of or relating to mamma or breast (of a woman or a female animal).

marry

Etymology 1

verb
  1. To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.
  2. (in passive) To be joined to (someone) as spouse according to law or custom.
  3. To arrange for the marriage of; to give away as wife or husband.
  4. To take as husband or wife.
  5. To unite; to join together into a close union.
  6. To unite in wedlock or matrimony; to perform the ceremony of joining spouses; to bring about a marital union according to the laws or customs of a place.
  7. To place (two ropes) alongside each other so that they may be grasped and hauled on at the same time.
  8. To join (two ropes) end to end so that both will pass through a block.

Etymology 2

interjection
  1. Indeed!, in truth!; a term of asseveration.

mart

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A market.
  2. A bargain.
verb
  1. To buy or sell in, or as in a mart.
  2. To traffic.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A license to pass the limits of a jurisdiction, or boundary of a country, for the purpose of making reprisals; a letter of marque.
  2. A brand or make of a manufactured product, especially of a motor car (in contradistinction to a model).
  3. A ship commissioned for making captures.
noun
  1. Battle; contest.

martyr

noun
  1. One who willingly accepts being put to death for adhering openly to one's religious beliefs; notably, saints canonized after martyrdom.
  2. (by extension) One who sacrifices his or her life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.
  3. (with a prepositional phrase of cause) One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.
verb
  1. To make someone into a martyr by putting him or her to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
  2. To persecute.
  3. To torment; to torture.

maturity

noun
  1. The state of being mature, ready or ripe.
  2. When bodily growth has completed and/or reproduction can begin.
  3. The state of a debt obligation at the end of the term of maturation thereof, once all interest and any applicable fees have accrued to the principal.
  4. Date when payment is due.

raita

noun
  1. A condiment used as a dip or sauce in the cuisine of southern Asia, made from seasoned yogurt.

rarity

noun
  1. A measure of the scarcity of an object.
  2. (of a gas) Thinness; the property of having low density
  3. A rare object.

ratatat

noun
  1. A swiftly repeated knocking sound.

ratty

adjective
  1. Similar to a rat; ratlike.
  2. Infested with rats.
  3. In poor condition or repair
  4. Irritable, annoyed, bad-tempered.

tamari

noun
  1. A type of soy sauce made without wheat, having a rich flavor.

tarry

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A sojourn.
verb
  1. To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything.
  2. To linger in expectation of something or until something is done or happens.
  3. To abide, stay or wait somewhere, especially if longer than planned.
  4. To stay somewhere temporarily.
  5. To wait for; to stay or stop for; to allow to linger.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Resembling tar.
  2. Covered with tar.

tart

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
  2. (of wine) high or too high in acidity.
  3. Sharp; keen; severe.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, containing jelly or conserve; a sort of fruit pie.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A prostitute.
  2. By extension, any woman with loose sexual morals.
verb
  1. To practice prostitution
  2. To practice promiscuous sex
  3. To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily

tartar

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A red compound deposited during wine making; mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate - a source of cream of tartar.
  2. A hard yellow deposit on the teeth.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A fearsome or angrily violent person.

tatami

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

tatty

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Potato

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Tattered; dilapidated, distressed, worn-out, torn

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A woven mat or screen hung at a door or window and kept wet to moisten and cool the air as it enters.

taut

verb
  1. To make taut; to tauten, to tighten.
adjective
  1. Under tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail; tight.
  2. (of a body, muscles, etc.) Not flabby; firm, toned; (of a person) having a lean, strong body.
  3. (of music, writing, etc.) Containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled.
  4. Experiencing anxiety or stress.
  5. (of a sailor, a ship, etc.) Neat and well-disciplined; (by extension) efficient and in order.
  6. Strong; uncompromising.

tiara

noun
  1. The papal crown.
  2. An ornamental coronet.

trait

noun
  1. An identifying characteristic, habit or trend.
  2. An uninstantiable collection of methods that provides functionality to a class by using the class’s own interface.

tram

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).
  2. A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
  3. A people mover.
  4. An aerial cable car.
  5. A train with wheels that runs on a road; a trackless train.
  6. A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).
  7. The shaft of a cart.
  8. One of the rails of a tramway.
verb
  1. To operate, or conduct the business of, a tramway.
  2. To travel by tram.
  3. To transport (material) by tram.
  4. To align a component in mechanical engineering or metalworking, particularly the head of a drill press.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A silk thread formed of two or more threads twisted together, used especially for the weft, or cross threads, of the best quality of velvets and silk goods.

trauma

noun
  1. Any serious injury to the body, often resulting from violence or an accident.
  2. An emotional wound leading to psychological injury.
  3. An event that causes great distress.

tray

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A small, typically rectangular or round, flat, and rigid object upon which things are carried.
  2. A flat carrier for items being transported.
  3. The items on a full tray.
  4. A component of a device into which an item is placed for use in the device's operations.
  5. A notification area used for icons and alerts.
  6. A type of retail or wholesale packaging for CPUs where the processors are sold in bulk and/or with minimal packaging.
  7. (pickup) truck bed
verb
  1. To place (items) on a tray
  2. To slide down a snow-covered hill on a tray from a cafeteria.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Trouble; annoyance; anger

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To grieve; to annoy

Etymology 4

verb
  1. To betray

Etymology 5

noun
  1. A playing card or die with the rank of three.
  2. A score of three in cards, dice, or dominoes.
  3. A three-pointer.
  4. The third bearer of the same personal name in a family, often denoted by suffixed Roman numeral III.
  5. The third branch of a deer's antler.

umami

noun
  1. One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed, cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.

marm

noun
  1. Madam; a polite term of address for a lady.