Saturday, February 8, 2025

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: 166

Number of Answers: 39

Points Needed for Genius: 116

Genius requires between 17 and 35 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 78% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, 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 166 was in the 50th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on February 7, 2025.
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 February 7, 2025.
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 February 7, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.3.
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 183
  • toot 180
  • naan 167
  • nana 167
  • lilt 134
  • till 134
  • tilt 134
  • tint 133
  • mama 124
  • mamma 124
  • nene 124
  • acacia 117
  • acai 117
  • onto 117
  • toon 117
  • anal 112
  • onion 112
  • boob 109
  • booboo 109
  • anon 107
  • baba 105
  • olio 105
  • papa 103
  • tact 103
  • lull 102
  • lulu 102
  • mitt 102
  • dodo 101
  • poop 101
  • call 100
  • calla 100
  • allay 99
  • ally 99
  • ratatat 99
  • tart 99
  • tartar 99
  • attar 98
  • tattoo 98
  • tutu 98
  • tatty 97
  • ammo 96
  • cocci 96
  • momma 96
  • mono 96
  • moon 96
  • epee 94
  • peep 94
  • loot 92
  • lotto 92


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 96,936 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,441 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*:

  • aalii
  • achiral
  • aclinic
  • alan
  • alanin
  • alar
  • alcaic
  • allicin
  • ancilla
  • anil
  • anilin
  • archaical
  • archil
  • calcar
  • calcaria
  • calcic
  • callan
  • caracal
  • carinal
  • carl
  • carlin
  • chalah
  • challa
  • chiliarch
  • chilli
  • chiral
  • cicala
  • clach
  • clachan
  • clinal
  • craal
  • halacha
  • halachic
  • halala
  • halalah
  • hallah
  • hallal
  • harl
  • hila
  • hilar
  • hili
  • ilia
  • ilial
  • laari
  • lahal
  • lahar
  • laich
  • lall
  • lallan
  • lanch
  • lari
  • larn
  • liana
  • lich
  • lichi
  • linac
  • linin
  • linn
  • liri
  • nala
  • narial
  • nihil
  • nill
  • rachial
  • rachilla
  • rhinal

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

anal

noun
  1. Any of the anal scales of a reptile.
  2. Anal sex.
adjective
  1. Of, related to, intended for or involving the anus.
  2. Of the stage in psychosexual development when the child's interest is alleged to be concentrated on the anal region.
  3. Of a person, compulsive and stubborn, obsessed with neatness and accuracy, supposedly from not having progressed beyond the anal stage.
  4. (of a vein) Proximate to the thorax.

anarchical

No Definition Found.

annal

noun
  1. The record of a single event or item.

aril

noun
  1. A tissue surrounding the seed in certain fruits such as pomegranates.

call

noun
  1. A telephone conversation.
  2. A short visit, usually for social purposes.
  3. A visit by a ship or boat to a port.
  4. A cry or shout.
  5. A decision or judgement.
  6. The characteristic cry of a bird or other animal.
  7. A beckoning or summoning.
  8. The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event; the floor.
  9. An option to buy stock at a specified price during or at a specified time.
  10. The act of calling to the other batsman.
  11. The state of being the batsman whose role it is to call (depends on where the ball goes.)
  12. A work shift which requires one to be available when requested (see on call).
  13. The act of jumping to a subprogram, saving the means to return to the original point.
  14. A statement of a particular state, or rule, made in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
  15. The act of matching a bet made by a player who has previously bet in the same round of betting.
  16. A note blown on the horn to encourage the dogs in a hunt.
  17. A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate to summon the sailors to duty.
  18. A pipe or other instrument to call birds or animals by imitating their note or cry. A game call.
  19. An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.
  20. Vocation; employment; calling.
  21. A reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance, or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, etc., on the land.
  22. (prostitution) A meeting with a client for paid sex; hookup; job.
verb
  1. (heading) To use one's voice.
  2. (heading) To visit.
  3. (heading) To name, identify or describe.
  4. (heading) Direct or indirect use of the voice.
  5. (sometimes with for) To require, demand.
  6. To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.
  7. To demand repayment of a loan.
  8. To jump to (another part of a program) to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.

calla

noun
  1. A marsh plant native to cooler areas throughout the northern hemisphere, Calla palustris, having pale green flowers in a white spathe.
  2. The calla lily, Zantedeschia aethiopica.

canal

noun
  1. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
  2. A tubular channel within the body.
  3. One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars.
verb
  1. To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage
  2. To travel along a canal by boat

carnal

adjective
  1. Relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites.
  2. Worldly or earthly; temporal.
  3. Of or relating to the body or flesh.

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.

chili

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking.
  2. Powdered chili pepper, used as a spice or flavouring in cooking.
  3. (Indian Chinese cuisine) a spicy stew of chicken or paneer, capsicum and onion, eaten as an appetizer.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A dish made with chili peppers and other ingredients, such as beans and beef.
  2. (Cincinnati) Cincinnati chili.

chill

noun
  1. A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
  2. A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
  3. An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
  4. An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
  5. The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
  6. A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
  7. Calmness; equanimity.
  8. A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.
verb
  1. To lower the temperature of something; to cool
  2. To become cold
  3. To harden a metal surface by sudden cooling
  4. To become hard by rapid cooling
  5. To relax, lie back
  6. To "hang", hang out; to spend time with another person or group. Also chill out.
  7. To smoke marijuana
  8. To discourage, depress
adjective
  1. Moderately cold or chilly.
  2. Unwelcoming; not cordial.
  3. Calm, relaxed, easygoing.
  4. "Cool"; meeting a certain hip standard or garnering the approval of a certain peer group.
  5. Okay, not a problem.

chinchilla

noun
  1. Either of two small, crepuscular rodents of the genus Chinchilla, native to the Andes, prized for their very soft fur and often kept as pets.
  2. The fur of a chinchilla, used for clothing.
  3. A variety of Persian cat with white fur and green eyes.

cilia

noun
  1. Hairs or similar protrusions along the margin of a plant organ.
  2. A hairlike organelle projecting from a eukaryotic cell (such as a unicellular organism or one cell of a multicelled organism). These structures serve either for locomotion by moving or as sensors.
  3. One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.

clan

noun
  1. A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief.
  2. A traditional social group of families in the Scottish Highlands having a common hereditary chieftain
  3. Any group defined by family ties with some sort of political unity.
  4. A group of players who habitually play on the same team in multiplayer games.
  5. A badger colony.

clinch

noun
  1. Any of several fastenings.
  2. The act or process of holding fast; that which serves to hold fast; a grip or grasp.
  3. A pun.
  4. A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.
  5. A passionate embrace.
  6. In combat sports, the act of one or both fighters holding onto the other to prevent being hit or engage in standup grappling.
verb
  1. To clasp; to interlock.
  2. To make certain; to finalize.
  3. To fasten securely or permanently.
  4. To bend and hammer the point of (a nail) so it cannot be removed.
  5. To embrace passionately.
  6. To hold firmly; to clench.
  7. To set closely together; to close tightly.

clinic

noun
  1. A medical facility, such as a hospital, especially one for the treatment and diagnosis of outpatients.
  2. (by extension) A hospital session to diagnose or treat patients.
  3. A school, or a session of a school or class, in which medicine or surgery is taught by the examination and treatment of patients in the presence of the pupils.
  4. A group practice of several physicians.
  5. A meeting for the diagnosis of problems, or training, on a particular subject.
  6. A temporary office arranged on a regular basis to allow politicians to meet their constituents.
  7. A series of workouts used to build skills of practitioners regardless of team affiliation.
  8. One confined to bed by sickness.
  9. One who receives baptism on a sickbed.

clinical

noun
  1. A medical student's session spent in a real-world nursing environment.
adjective
  1. Of or pertaining to a medical clinic or facility.
  2. Dealing with practical management of patients; contrasting with prehealth sciences.
  3. Cool and emotionless.
  4. Of or relating to a bed.

clinician

noun
  1. A healthcare provider working in a clinic or hospital.

cranial

adjective
  1. Of or relating to the cranium, or to the skull.

hail

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.
verb
  1. Of hail, to fall from the sky.
  2. To send or release hail.
  3. To pour down in rapid succession.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To greet; give salutation to; salute.
  2. To name; to designate; to call.
  3. To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of
  4. To signal in order to initiate communication with.
adjective
  1. Healthy, whole, safe.

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.

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.

hill

noun
  1. An elevated location smaller than a mountain.
  2. A sloping road.
  3. A heap of earth surrounding a plant.
  4. A single cluster or group of plants growing close together, and having the earth heaped up about them.
  5. The pitcher’s mound.
verb
  1. To form into a heap or mound.
  2. To heap or draw earth around plants.

iliac

adjective
  1. Of or pertaining to the ilium.

laic

noun
  1. A layperson, as opposed to a member of the clergy.
adjective
  1. Lay, relating to laypersons, as opposed to clerical.

laical

No Definition Found.

lain

Etymology 1

verb
  1. To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
  2. To be placed or situated.
  3. To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
  4. Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
  5. Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
  6. Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
  7. To lodge; to sleep.
  8. To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest.
  9. To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To conceal, keep quiet about.

lair

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A place inhabited by a wild animal, often a cave or a hole in the ground.
  2. A shed or shelter for domestic animals.
  3. A place inhabited by a criminal or criminals, a superhero or a supervillain; a refuge, retreat, haven or hideaway.
  4. A bed or resting place.
  5. A grave; a cemetery plot.
verb
  1. To rest; to dwell.
  2. To lay down.
  3. To bury.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A bog; a mire.
verb
  1. To mire.
  2. To become mired.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A person who dresses in a showy but tasteless manner and behaves in a vulgar and conceited way; a show-off.

lanai

noun
  1. (Florida) A Hawaiian-style roofed patio.

larch

noun
  1. A coniferous tree, of genus Larix, having deciduous leaves, in fascicles.
  2. The wood of the larch.

liar

noun
  1. One who tells lies.
  2. A swabber responsible for cleaning the outside parts of the ship rather than the cabins, a role traditionally assigned to a person caught telling a lie the previous week.

lilac

noun
  1. A large shrub of the genus Syringa, especially Syringa vulgaris, bearing white, pale-pink or purple flowers.
  2. A flower of the lilac shrub.
  3. (color) A pale purple color, the color of some lilac flowers.
adjective
  1. Having a pale purple colour.

lira

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The former currency of Israel, superseded by the sheqel.
noun
  1. The basic unit of currency in Turkey.
  2. The currency of Lebanon (also pound), Syria (also pound), Jordan (also dinar)
  3. The former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino, Cyprus and the Vatican City, superseded by the euro

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A Ukrainian folk musical instrument similar to the hurdy-gurdy.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. Any of a set of fine ridges on the shells of some molluscs

nail

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
  2. The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
  3. The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
  4. The claw of a bird or other animal.
  5. A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
  6. A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
  7. An archaic English unit of length equivalent to 1/20 of an ell or 1/16 of a yard (2 1/4 inches or 5.715 cm).

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To fix (an object) to another object using a nail.
  2. To drive a nail.
  3. To stud or boss with nails, or as if with nails.
  4. To catch.
  5. To expose as a sham.
  6. To accomplish (a task) completely and successfully.
  7. To hit (a target) effectively with some weapon.
  8. Of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with.
  9. To spike, as a cannon.
  10. To nail down: to make certain, or confirm.

racial

noun
  1. A skill possessed by all characters of a certain race.
adjective
  1. Of or relating to a race (or a people).

rail

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
  2. The metal bar that makes the track for a railroad.
  3. A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
  4. A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
  5. One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
  6. A vertical section on one side of a web page.
  7. A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
verb
  1. To travel by railway.
  2. To enclose with rails or a railing.
  3. To range in a line.
  4. To criticize severely.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To complain violently (against, about).

Etymology 4

noun
  1. An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
  2. Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.

Etymology 5

verb
  1. (of a liquid) To gush, flow.

railcar

noun
  1. A self-propelled railway vehicle for passengers.
  2. Any railway carriage or wagon, a railway car.

rial

noun
  1. The official currencies of Iran, Oman, and Yemen.
  2. An old gold coin of England.

rill

noun
  1. A very small brook; a streamlet.
verb
  1. To trickle, pour, or run like a small stream.
noun
  1. A long, narrow depression that resembles a channel, found on the surface of various lunar and planetary bodies.