Friday, January 3, 2025

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: 218

Number of Answers: 50

Points Needed for Genius: 153

Genius requires between 23 and 44 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 81% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 65% 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 218 was in the 73rd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 31, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 50 possible answers rank it in the 77th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 31, 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 January 1, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.2.
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 181
  • toot 176
  • naan 166
  • nana 166
  • lilt 130
  • till 130
  • tilt 130
  • tint 127
  • mama 123
  • mamma 123
  • nene 121
  • acacia 115
  • acai 115
  • onto 115
  • toon 115
  • anal 110
  • onion 110
  • anon 107
  • boob 107
  • booboo 107
  • olio 104
  • baba 102
  • papa 102
  • lull 101
  • lulu 101
  • poop 101
  • tact 101
  • dodo 100
  • mitt 100
  • allay 99
  • ally 99
  • call 99
  • calla 99
  • ratatat 99
  • tart 99
  • tartar 99
  • attar 98
  • tattoo 97
  • tatty 97
  • tutu 97
  • cocci 96
  • mono 96
  • moon 96
  • ammo 95
  • momma 95
  • epee 94
  • peep 94
  • loon 91
  • nanny 91


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 95,307 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,386 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*:

  • amarna
  • ammono
  • anomy
  • anonym
  • caconym
  • caconymy
  • camorra
  • carman
  • carrom
  • cocoyam
  • comm
  • commo
  • commy
  • corm
  • cyma
  • cymar
  • maar
  • macaco
  • macon
  • mammy
  • mana
  • manana
  • mannan
  • mano
  • mara
  • marc
  • marram
  • marrano
  • marron
  • maya
  • mayan
  • mony
  • moory
  • mora
  • mornay
  • morro
  • myoma
  • narcoma
  • noma
  • nonman
  • rammy
  • ramona
  • roman
  • romano

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

acronym

noun
  1. An abbreviation formed by the initial letters of other words, sometimes exclusively such abbreviations when pronounced as a word (as "laser") rather than as individual letters (initialisms such as "TNT").
  2. An abbreviation formed by the beginning letters or syllables of other words (as "Benelux").
verb
  1. To form into an acronym.

ammo

noun
  1. Ammunition.
verb
  1. To load up on ammunition.

armor

noun
  1. A protective layer over a body, vehicle, or other object intended to deflect or diffuse damaging forces.
  2. A natural form of this kind of protection on an animal's body.
  3. Metal plate, protecting a ship, military vehicle, or aircraft.
  4. A tank, or other heavy mobile assault vehicle.
  5. A military formation consisting primarily of tanks or other armoured fighting vehicles, collectively.
  6. The naturally occurring surface of pebbles, rocks or boulders that line the bed of a waterway or beach and provide protection against erosion.
verb
  1. To equip something with armor or a protective coating or hardening.
  2. To provide something with an analogous form of protection.

armory

noun
  1. Heraldry
  2. A place where arms are kept, an arsenal.
  3. A collection of weapons and materiel.
  4. A place where arms are made.

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.

aroma

noun
  1. A smell; especially a pleasant spicy or fragrant one.

camo

noun
  1. A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.
  2. Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting.
verb
  1. To camouflage.
  2. To put on camouflage clothing.

carom

Etymology 1

noun
  1. (cue sports, especially billiards) A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball.
  2. A billiard-like Indian game in which players take turns flicking checker-like pieces into one of four goals on the corners of a (one meter by one meter square) board.
verb
  1. To make a carom (shot in billiards).
  2. To strike and bounce back; to strike (something) and rebound.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. (spices) ajwain

cayman

noun
  1. Any of the relatively small crocodilians of genus Caiman, within family Alligatoridae.
  2. A semi-aquatic lizard, of the genus Dracaena, found in South America. To differentiate from caimans, they are referred to as caiman lizards.

coma

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A state of unconsciousness from which one may not wake up, usually induced by some form of trauma.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A cloud of dust surrounding the nucleus of a comet.
  2. A defect characterized by diffuse, pear-shaped images that in an ideal image would appear as points.
  3. A tuft or bunch, such as the assemblage of branches forming the head of a tree, a cluster of bracts when empty and terminating the inflorescence of a plant, or a tuft of long hairs on certain seeds.

comma

noun
  1. The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set off parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
  2. A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark.
  3. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia.
  4. A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.
  5. A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.
  6. In Ancient Greek rhetoric, a short clause, something less than a colon, originally denoted by comma marks. In antiquity it was defined as a combination of words having no more than eight syllables in all. It was later applied to longer phrases, e.g. the Johannine comma.
  7. A brief interval.
verb
  1. To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas.

common

noun
  1. Mutual good, shared by more than one.
  2. A tract of land in common ownership; common land.
  3. The people; the community.
  4. The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.
verb
  1. To communicate (something).
  2. To converse, talk.
  3. To have sex.
  4. To participate.
  5. To have a joint right with others in common ground.
  6. To board together; to eat at a table in common.
adjective
  1. Mutual; shared by more than one.
  2. Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
  3. Found in large numbers or in a large quantity; usual.
  4. Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
  5. (grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.
  6. (grammar) Of or pertaining to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns.
  7. Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name.
  8. Profane; polluted.
  9. Given to lewd habits; prostitute.

cram

noun
  1. The act of cramming (forcing or stuffing something).
  2. Information hastily memorized.
  3. A warp having more than two threads passing through each dent or split of the reed.
  4. (British slang) A lie; a falsehood.
  5. A mathematical board game in which players take turns placing dominoes horizontally or vertically until no more can be placed, the loser being the player who cannot continue.
  6. A small friendship book with limited space for people to enter their information.
verb
  1. To press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
  2. To fill with food to satiety; to stuff.
  3. To put hastily through an extensive course of memorizing or study, as in preparation for an examination.
  4. To study hard; to swot.
  5. To eat greedily, and to satiety; to stuff oneself.
  6. (British slang) To lie; to intentionally not tell the truth.
  7. (British slang) To make (a person) believe false or exaggerated tales.

macaroon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Any of various pastries based on almond and egg white, traditionally made in France.
noun
  1. A soft biscuit or cookie prepared with almond or coconut dough.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A coarse, rude, low fellow.

macro

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Very large in scope or scale.
adjective
  1. Of a lifestyle incorporating a dietary regimen including locally grown, seasonal, natural foods, or of the diet itself.
  2. Long-lived.
noun
  1. The study of the entire economy in terms of the total amount of goods and services produced, total income earned, the level of employment of productive resources, and the general behavior of prices.
noun
  1. Any of the elements required in large amounts by all living things.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A comparatively human-friendly abbreviation of complex input to a computer program.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. Macro lens

macron

noun
  1. A short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark (¯) placed over any of various letters, usually to indicate that the pronunciation of a vowel is long.

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).

mammon

noun
  1. The desire for wealth personified as an evil spirit or a malign influence.
  2. Often mammon: wealth, material avarice, profit.

manna

noun
  1. Food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus.
  2. (by extension) Any boon which comes into one's hands by good luck.
  3. The sugary sap of the manna gum tree which oozes out from holes drilled by insects and falls to the ground around the tree.http//www.museum.vic.gov.au/forest/plants/gum.html

manor

noun
  1. A landed estate.
  2. The main house of such an estate or a similar residence; a mansion.
  3. A district over which a feudal lord could exercise certain rights and privileges in medieval western Europe.
  4. The lord's residence and seat of control in such a district.
  5. Any home area or territory in which authority is exercised, often in a police or criminal context.
  6. One's neighbourhood.

many

noun
  1. A multitude; a great aggregate; a mass of people; the generality; the common herd.
  2. A considerable number.
adjective
  1. A large number of; numerous.
pronoun
  1. An indefinite large number of people or things.

maraca

noun
  1. A Latin American percussion instrument consisting of a hollow-gourd rattle containing pebbles or beans and often played in pairs, as a rhythm instrument.
  2. (in the plural) breasts

maroon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An escaped negro slave of the Caribbean and the Americas or a descendant of escaped slaves.
  2. A castaway; a person who has been marooned.
verb
  1. To abandon in a remote, desolate place, as on a desert island.
adjective
  1. Associated with Maroon culture, communities or peoples.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A rich dark red, somewhat brownish, color.
adjective
  1. Of a maroon color

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A rocket-propelled firework or skyrocket, often one used as a signal (e.g. to summon the crew of a lifeboat or warn of an air raid).

Etymology 4

noun
  1. An idiot; a fool.

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.

mayo

noun
  1. A white person.
noun
  1. A dressing made from vegetable oil, raw egg yolks and seasoning, used on salads, with french fries, in sandwiches etc.
  2. Any cold dish with that dressing as an ingredient.
  3. Any cream, for example for moisturizing the face or conditioning the hair, for which the base is egg yolks and oil.

mayor

noun
  1. The chief executive of the municipal government of a city, borough, &c., formerly usually appointed as a caretaker by European royal courts but now usually appointed or elected locally.
  2. Short for mayor of the palace, the royal stewards of the Frankish Empire.
  3. Synonym of mair, various former officials in the Kingdom of Scotland.
  4. A member of a city council.
  5. A high justice, an important judge.
  6. A largely ceremonial position in some municipal governments that presides over the city council while a contracted city manager holds actual executive power.
  7. A local VIP, a muckamuck or big shot reckoned to lead some local group.

moan

noun
  1. A low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure
verb
  1. To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn.
  2. To grieve.
  3. To distress (someone); to sadden.
  4. To make a moan or similar sound.
  5. To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice.
  6. To complain; to grumble.

momma

noun
  1. Mother
  2. A voluptuous woman.
  3. One's wife or girlfriend.

mommy

noun
  1. (usually childish) Mother.
verb
  1. To treat someone like a mother would; to mother someone.
adjective
  1. (chiefly in the superlative) Characteristic of a mother; motherly.

mono

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A viral infection marked by extreme fatigue, high fever, and swollen lymph nodes.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A bicycle or motorcycle trick where the front wheel is lifted off the ground while riding

Etymology 3

adjective
  1. Monaural or monophonic; having only a single audio channel.

Etymology 4

adjective
  1. Monochrome.

Etymology 5

noun
  1. An injective homomorphism
  2. The absence of sexual dimorphism
  3. A morphism n such that for any other morphisms f and g, if n \circ f = n \circ g then f = g.

Etymology 6

noun
  1. A monogamous person.
adjective
  1. Monoamorous, monogamous.

Etymology 7

adjective
  1. Monosexual.

monocracy

noun
  1. A form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.
  2. An instance of this government.

moon

proper noun
  1. The Earth's moon Luna; the sole natural satellite of the Earth, represented in astronomy and astrology by ☾.
  2. The god of the Moon in Heathenry.
  3. A surname.
  4. The 54th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
noun
  1. (by extension of Moon) Any natural satellite of a planet.
  2. A month, particularly a lunar month.
  3. A crescent-like outwork in a fortification.
  4. The eighteenth trump/major arcana card of the Tarot.
  5. The thirty-second Lenormand card.
  6. In hearts, the action of taking all the point cards in one hand.
verb
  1. To display one's buttocks to, typically as a jest, insult, or protest.
  2. (usually followed by over or after) To fuss over something adoringly; to be infatuated with someone.
  3. To spend time idly, absent-mindedly.
  4. To expose to the rays of the Moon.
  5. To adorn with moons or crescents.
  6. (cryptocurrency) Of a coin or token: to rise in price rapidly.
  7. To shoot the moon.

moony

noun
  1. The act of mooning, flashing the buttocks.
  2. A silly person.
adjective
  1. Resembling the moon.
  2. Moonlit.
  3. Absent-minded.
  4. Silly.
  5. Sickly or tipsy.

moor

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath
  2. A game preserve consisting of moorland.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To cast anchor or become fastened.
  2. To fix or secure (e.g. a vessel) in a particular place by casting anchor, or by fastening with ropes, cables or chains or the like
  3. To secure or fix firmly.

moray

noun
  1. Any of the large cosmopolitan carnivorous eels of the family Muraenidae.

morn

noun
  1. Morning.

morocco

noun
  1. A soft leather, made from goatskin, used especially in bookbinding.
  2. A sheepskin leather in imitation of this.
  3. A very strong ale, anciently brewed in Cumberland.

moron

noun
  1. A stupid person; an idiot; a fool.
  2. A person of mild mental subnormality in the former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50–70.

myna

noun
  1. One of the South and East Asian birds of the starling family Sturnidae.

noncom

noun
  1. A non-commissioned officer, such as a sergeant (army) or petty officer (navy).

norm

Etymology 1

noun
  1. That which is normal or typical.
  2. A rule that is enforced by members of a community.
  3. A sentence with non-descriptive meaning, such as a command, permission or prohibition.
  4. A function, generally denoted v\mapsto\left|v\right| or v\mapsto\left\|v\right\|, that maps vectors to non-negative scalars and has the following properties:
  5. A high level of performance in a chess tournament, several of which are required for a player to receive a title.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To endow (a vector space, etc) with a norm.

roam

verb
  1. To wander or travel freely and with no specific destination.
  2. To use a network or service from different locations or devices.
  3. To transmit (resources) between different locations or devices, to allow comparable usage from any of them.
  4. To range or wander over.

room

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Opportunity or scope (to do something).
  2. Space for something, or to carry out an activity.
  3. A particular portion of space.
  4. Sufficient space for or to do something.
  5. A space between the timbers of a ship's frame.
  6. Place; stead.
  7. A separate part of a building, enclosed by walls, a floor and a ceiling.
  8. (with possessive pronoun) (One's) bedroom.
  9. (in the plural) A set of rooms inhabited by someone; one's lodgings.
  10. (always in the singular, metonymy) The people in a room.
  11. An area for working in a coal mine.
  12. A portion of a cave that is wider than a passage.
  13. A IRC or chat room.
  14. Place or position in society; office; rank; post, sometimes when vacated by its former occupant.
  15. Furniture sufficient to furnish a room.
verb
  1. To reside, especially as a boarder or tenant.
  2. To assign to a room; to allocate a room to.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Wide; spacious; roomy.

Etymology 3

adverb
  1. Far; at a distance; wide in space or extent.
  2. Off from the wind.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A deep blue dye.

roomy

noun
  1. A roommate.
adjective
  1. Spacious, expansive, comfortable.

marm

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

macaron

noun
  1. Any of various pastries based on almond and egg white, traditionally made in France.

romcom

noun
  1. A genre of fiction, especially film, that presents love stories in a humorous and light-hearted way.
  2. Such a story.

mononym

noun
  1. A single name by which a person, thing etc is known.
  2. A single term for a thing or concept, allowing for no synonyms.