Tuesday, February 25, 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: 4

Maximum Puzzle Score: 282

Number of Answers: 45

Points Needed for Genius: 197

Genius requires between 22 and 39 words. You need at least an 8-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 90% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 61% 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 282 was in the 91st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on February 23, 2025.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 45 possible answers rank it in the 66th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on February 24, 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 an 8-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on February 24, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 6.4.
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 192
  • loll 183
  • toot 181
  • naan 167
  • nana 167
  • lilt 135
  • till 135
  • tilt 135
  • tint 134
  • nene 126
  • mama 125
  • mamma 125
  • acacia 118
  • acai 118
  • onto 118
  • toon 118
  • onion 113
  • anal 112
  • anon 109
  • boob 109
  • booboo 109
  • baba 106
  • olio 105
  • dodo 103
  • lull 103
  • lulu 103
  • papa 103
  • tact 103
  • mitt 102
  • call 101
  • calla 101
  • poop 101
  • allay 99
  • ally 99
  • ratatat 99
  • tart 99
  • tartar 99
  • tattoo 99
  • tatty 99
  • tutu 99
  • attar 98
  • ammo 96
  • cocci 96
  • momma 96
  • mono 96
  • moon 96
  • epee 95
  • peep 95
  • loot 92
  • lotto 92


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 97,730 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,476 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*:

  • billbug
  • blub
  • blubbing
  • bludging
  • bluing
  • blunging
  • bubu
  • bulbil
  • bulbul
  • bulling
  • bund
  • bunging
  • bunn
  • dubbin
  • dubbining
  • duding
  • dunging
  • dunlin
  • guggling
  • guid
  • guiling
  • gunging
  • iglu
  • illuding
  • induing
  • indulin
  • inulin
  • lungi
  • nulling
  • unbid
  • unblind
  • unblinding
  • unbudging
  • ungluing

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

bubbling

verb
  1. To produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).
  2. To churn or foment, as if wishing to rise to the surface.
  3. To rise through a medium or system, similar to the way that bubbles rise in liquid.
  4. To cheat, delude.
  5. To cry, weep.
  6. To pat a baby on the back so as to cause it to belch.
  7. To cause to feel as if bubbling or churning.
  8. To express in a bubbly or lively manner.
  9. To form into a protruding round shape.
  10. To cover with bubbles.
  11. To bubble in; to mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area (‘bubble’).
noun
  1. The action or motion of something that bubbles.

budding

verb
  1. To form buds.
  2. To reproduce by splitting off buds.
  3. To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.
  4. To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or growth and promise.
  5. To put forth as a bud.
  6. To graft by inserting a bud under the bark of another tree.
noun
  1. The practice of uniting a single scion bud with rootstock or bark; the result of this practice.
adjective
  1. Beginning to develop.

budging

verb
  1. To move.
  2. To move.
  3. To yield in one’s opinions or beliefs.
  4. (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa) To cut or butt (in line); to join the front or middle rather than the back of a queue.
  5. To try to improve the spot of a decision on a sports field.

bugging

verb
  1. To annoy.
  2. To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
noun
  1. Electronic surveillance.

bugling

verb
  1. To announce, sing, or cry in the manner of a musical bugle
noun
  1. The act of playing a bugle.

build

noun
  1. The physique of a human body; constitution or structure of a human body.
  2. Any of various versions of a software product as it is being developed for release to users.
  3. Any structure, such as a building, statue, pool or forest, created by the player.
verb
  1. To form (something) by combining materials or parts.
  2. To develop or give form to (something) according to a plan or process.
  3. To increase or strengthen (something) by adding gradually to.
  4. To establish a basis for (something).
  5. To form by combining materials or parts.
  6. To develop in magnitude or extent.
  7. To construct (software) by compiling its source code.
  8. (of source code) To be converted into software by compilation, usually with minimal human intervention.

building

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The act or process by which something is built; construction.
  2. A closed structure with walls and a roof.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To form (something) by combining materials or parts.
  2. To develop or give form to (something) according to a plan or process.
  3. To increase or strengthen (something) by adding gradually to.
  4. To establish a basis for (something).
  5. To form by combining materials or parts.
  6. To develop in magnitude or extent.
  7. To construct (software) by compiling its source code.
  8. (of source code) To be converted into software by compilation, usually with minimal human intervention.

bulb

noun
  1. Any solid object rounded at one end and tapering on the other, possibly attached to a larger object at the tapered end.
  2. A light bulb.
  3. The bulb-shaped root portion of a plant such as a tulip, from which the rest of the plant may be regrown.
  4. A bulbous protuberance at the forefoot of certain vessels to reduce turbulence.
  5. The medulla oblongata.
verb
  1. To take the shape of a bulb; to swell.

bulging

verb
  1. To stick out from (a surface).
  2. To bilge, as a ship; to founder.
noun
  1. The shape or motion of something that bulges.

bull

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.
  2. A male of domesticated cattle or oxen of any age.
  3. Any adult male bovine.
  4. An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants, camels and seals.
  5. A large, strong man.
  6. An investor who buys (commodities or securities) in anticipation of a rise in prices.
  7. A policeman.
  8. A crown coin; its value, 5 shillings.
  9. (Philadelphia) A man.
  10. A man who has sex with another man's wife or girlfriend with the consent of both.
  11. A drink made by pouring water into a cask that previously held liquor.
adjective
  1. Large and strong, like a bull.
  2. (of large mammals) adult male
  3. Of a market in which prices are rising (compare bear)
  4. Stupid
noun
  1. The centre of a target, inside the inner and magpie.
  2. A shot which hits the centre of a target.
  3. The two central rings on a dartboard.
  4. A hard striped peppermint-flavoured boiled sweet.
  5. Thick glass set into the side of a ship to let in light.
  6. A hand-cancelled postmark issued by a counter clerk at a post office, typically done on a receipt for proof of mailing.
  7. The central part of a crown glass disk, with concentric ripple effect.
  8. A convex glass lens which is placed in front of a lamp to concentrate the light so as to make it more conspicuous as a signal; also the lantern itself.
  9. A £50 banknote.
  10. Any of the first postage stamps produced in Brazil from 1843.
noun
  1. The faeces of a bull.
  2. False or exaggerated statements made to impress and deceive the listener rather than inform; nonsense.
  3. A card game in which the object is to bluff about cards laid down and to determine when one's opponents are bluffing.
  4. An object of frustration and/or disgust, often caused by a perceived deception.
  5. Statements that may be true but misleading nonetheless.
  6. Statements made without any particular reference to their truth value.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To force oneself (in a particular direction).
  2. To lie, to tell untruths.
  3. To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do.
  4. To polish boots to a high shine.
  5. To endeavour to raise the market price of.
  6. To endeavour to raise prices in.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.
  2. A seal affixed to a document, especially a document from the Pope.
verb
  1. (17th century) to publish in a Papal bull

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A lie.
  2. Nonsense.
verb
  1. To mock; to cheat.

Etymology 5

noun
  1. (16th century) A bubble.

bundling

verb
  1. To tie or wrap together into a bundle.
  2. To hustle; to dispatch something or someone quickly.
  3. To prepare for departure; to set off in a hurry or without ceremony; used with away, off, out.
  4. To dress someone warmly.
  5. To dress warmly. Usually bundle up
  6. To sell hardware and software as a single product.
  7. To hurry.
  8. To hastily or clumsily push, put, carry or otherwise send something into a particular place.
  9. To sleep on the same bed without undressing.
noun
  1. Arrangement in a bundle or collection.
  2. An old custom in Wales, New England, and elsewhere for sweethearts to sleep on the same bed without undressing.
verb
  1. (often with 'on') To jump into a dogpile.
  2. To pile on, to overwhelm in other senses.

bung

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A stopper, alternative to a cork, often made of rubber used to prevent fluid passing through the neck of a bottle, vat, a hole in a vessel etc.
  2. A cecum or anus, especially of a slaughter animal.
  3. A bribe.
  4. The orifice in the bilge of a cask through which it is filled; bunghole.
  5. A sharper or pickpocket.
verb
  1. To plug, as with a bung.
  2. To put or throw somewhere without care; to chuck.
  3. To batter, bruise; to cause to bulge or swell.
  4. To pass a bribe.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Broken, not in working order.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. (thieves' cant) A purse.

bungling

verb
  1. To botch up, bumble or incompetently perform a task; to make or mend clumsily; to manage awkwardly.
noun
  1. An act of incompetence or ineptitude.
adjective
  1. Incompetent or inept.

dubbing

verb
  1. To confer knighthood; the conclusion of the ceremony was marked by a tap on the shoulder with a sword.
  2. To name, to entitle, to call.
  3. To deem.
  4. To clothe or invest; to ornament; to adorn.
  5. (heading) To strike, rub, or dress smooth; to dab.
  6. To prepare (a gamecock) for fighting, by trimming the hackles and cutting off the comb and wattles.
verb
  1. To make a noise by brisk drumbeats.
  2. To do something badly.
  3. In golf, to execute a shot poorly.
verb
  1. To add sound to film or change audio on film.
  2. To make a copy from an original or master audio tape.
  3. To replace the original soundtrack of a film with a synchronized translation
  4. To mix audio tracks to produce a new sound; to remix.
verb
  1. To open or close.
noun
  1. A mixture of tallow and oil used to soften leather, and make it waterproof.
noun
  1. The conferral of knighthood; investment with a title.
  2. The replacement of a voice part in a movie or cartoon, particularly with a translation, revoicing.
  3. (filmmaking) The process in which additional or supplementary recordings are "mixed" with original production sound to create the finished soundtrack.
  4. The transfer of recorded music from one medium to another.

dull

verb
  1. To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
  2. To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
  3. To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
  4. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
adjective
  1. Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
  2. Boring; not exciting or interesting.
  3. Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
  4. Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
  5. Sluggish, listless.
  6. Cloudy, overcast.
  7. Insensible; unfeeling.
  8. Heavy; lifeless; inert.
  9. (of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
  10. (of a noise or sound) Not clear, muffled.

dulling

verb
  1. To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
  2. To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
  3. To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
  4. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

dung

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Manure; animal excrement.
  2. A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.
verb
  1. To fertilize with dung.
  2. (calico printing) To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.
  3. To release dung: to defecate.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To hit or strike.
  2. To dash; to throw violently.
  3. To inflict minor damage upon, especially by hitting or striking.
  4. To fire or reject.
  5. To deduct, as points, from another, in the manner of a penalty; to penalize.
  6. To mishit (a golf ball).

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.

dunning

verb
  1. To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
  2. To harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.
verb
  1. To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
noun
  1. Attempt to collect a debt.

glug

noun
  1. The sound made when a significant amount of liquid is poured suddenly out of something, such as a jug or bottle.
  2. The amount of liquid issued when the "glug" sound is heard.
verb
  1. To flow in noisy bursts.
  2. To quickly swallow liquid.

glugging

verb
  1. To flow in noisy bursts.
  2. To quickly swallow liquid.
noun
  1. A sound that glugs.

gluing

verb
  1. To join or attach something using glue.
  2. To cause something to adhere closely to; to follow attentively.
noun
  1. The act of attaching something with glue.
  2. A connection between the edges of two planes, or between the points at the ends of two lines.

guiding

verb
  1. To serve as a guide for someone or something; to lead or direct in a way; to conduct in a course or path.
  2. To steer or navigate, especially a ship or as a pilot.
  3. To exert control or influence over someone or something.
  4. To supervise the education or training of someone.
  5. To act as a guide.
noun
  1. Guidance.
  2. Girl Guiding.

guild

noun
  1. A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of merchants, craftspeople, or artisans for mutual aid, particularly in the Middle Ages.
  2. A corporation.
  3. A group of diverse species that share common characteristics or habits.
  4. An organized group of players who regularly play together in a multiplayer game.

gull

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A seabird of the genus Larus or of the family Laridae.
  2. Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Cepora.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A cheating trick; a fraud.
  2. One easily cheated; a dupe.
  3. (Oxford University slang) A swindler or trickster.
verb
  1. To deceive or cheat.
  2. To mislead.
  3. To trick and defraud.

gulling

verb
  1. To deceive or cheat.
  2. To mislead.
  3. To trick and defraud.
noun
  1. An instance of duping or fooling somebody.

gunning

No Definition Found.

indulging

verb
  1. (often followed by "in"): To yield to a temptation or desire.
  2. To satisfy the wishes or whims of.
  3. To give way to (a habit or temptation); not to oppose or restrain.
  4. To grant an extension to the deadline of a payment.
  5. To grant as by favour; to bestow in concession, or in compliance with a wish or request.

linguini

noun
  1. Ribbons of pasta, cut from a sheet, not as wide as tagliatelle.

lubing

verb
  1. To lubricate

lugging

verb
  1. (sometimes figurative) To haul or drag along (especially something heavy); to carry; to pull.
  2. To run at too slow a speed.
  3. To carry an excessive amount of sail for the conditions prevailing.
  4. To pull toward the inside rail ("lugging in") or the outside rail ("lugging out") during a race.
noun
  1. The process by which something is lugged from one place to another; a laborious carrying or dragging.

luging

verb
  1. To travel by luge; to ride a luge.

lull

noun
  1. A period of rest or soothing.
  2. A period of reduced activity; a respite
  3. A period without waves or wind.
  4. An extended pause between sets of waves.
verb
  1. To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm
  2. To become gradually calm; to subside; to cease or abate.

lulling

verb
  1. To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm
  2. To become gradually calm; to subside; to cease or abate.

lulu

noun
  1. A remarkable person, object or idea.
  2. A very attractive or alluring person.
  3. A very bad mistake or error.
  4. A fixed allowance paid to a legislator in lieu of reimbursement for actual expenses.

lung

noun
  1. A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood.
  2. (plural) Capacity for exercise or exertion; breath.
  3. That which supplies oxygen or fresh air, such as trees, parklands, forest, etc., to a place.

lunging

verb
  1. To (cause to make) a sudden forward movement (present participle: lunging).
  2. To longe or work a horse in a circle around a handler (present participle: lunging or lungeing).
noun
  1. The act of one who lunges; a lunge.

nubbin

noun
  1. A stub, especially a stub of undeveloped corn or fruit or nipple.
  2. A small protuberance, bud, bump or knob.
  3. The clitoris.

nudging

verb
  1. To push against gently, especially in order to gain attention or give a signal.
  2. To near or come close to something.
noun
  1. The act of giving a nudge; pushing, touching.
  2. Hinting or influencing people's choices (according to nudge theory); softly controlling.

null

noun
  1. A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
  2. Zero quantity of expressions; nothing.
  3. Something that has no force or meaning.
  4. The ASCII or Unicode character (␀), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
  5. The attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
  6. One of the beads in nulled work.
  7. Null hypothesis.
verb
  1. To nullify; to annul.
  2. To form nulls, or into nulls, as in a lathe.
  3. To crack; to remove restrictions or limitations in (software).
adjective
  1. Having no validity; "null and void"
  2. Insignificant.
  3. Absent or non-existent.
  4. Of the null set.
  5. Of or comprising a value of precisely zero.
  6. (of a mutation) Causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.

unbind

verb
  1. To take bindings off.
  2. To set free from a debt, contract or promise.
  3. To disable some kind of connection in software, such as a key binding.

unbinding

verb
  1. To take bindings off.
  2. To set free from a debt, contract or promise.
  3. To disable some kind of connection in software, such as a key binding.
noun
  1. The release or freeing of something that was bound.

unbuild

verb
  1. To dismantle or deconstruct (something previously built).

unbuilding

verb
  1. To dismantle or deconstruct (something previously built).

unbundling

verb
  1. To separate parts which have been bundled together.
  2. To break down a product or service into a number of separate elements that can be charged for individually.
noun
  1. The process by which something is unbundled.

undid

verb
  1. To reverse the effects of an action.
  2. To unfasten.
  3. To impoverish or ruin, as in reputation; to cause the downfall of.