Tuesday, July 29, 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: 138

Number of Answers: 36

Points Needed for Genius: 97

Genius requires between 15 and 32 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 67% 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 138 was in the 34th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this low was on July 28, 2025.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 36 possible answers rank it in the 42nd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were fewer answers than this was on July 28, 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 July 26, 2025.

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 206
  • loll 201
  • toot 193
  • naan 176
  • nana 176
  • lilt 143
  • till 143
  • tilt 143
  • tint 138
  • mama 135
  • mamma 135
  • nene 135
  • acacia 130
  • acai 130
  • onto 127
  • toon 127
  • onion 123
  • anon 120
  • anal 119
  • olio 116
  • boob 113
  • booboo 113
  • dodo 113
  • tact 113
  • poop 112
  • papa 111
  • baba 110
  • lull 109
  • lulu 109
  • call 108
  • calla 108
  • mitt 108
  • ratatat 106
  • tart 106
  • tartar 106
  • attar 105
  • mono 105
  • moon 105
  • tatty 105
  • ammo 104
  • momma 104
  • tattoo 104
  • tutu 104
  • allay 103
  • ally 103
  • cocci 103
  • loon 101
  • epee 100
  • peep 100
  • roar 99


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 104,699 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,696 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*:

  • ahull
  • alula
  • cachucha
  • calluna
  • canula
  • chaunt
  • claucht
  • culch
  • cultch
  • cunt
  • cutch
  • hallucal
  • haut
  • hunh
  • lacunal
  • latu
  • lauan
  • lunt
  • nautch
  • nucha
  • nuchal
  • nullah
  • nutant
  • tuchun
  • uhlan
  • ulan
  • ululant
  • unau
  • unhat

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

actual

noun
  1. An actual, real one; notably:
adjective
  1. Relating to a person's acts or deeds; active, practical
  2. Existing in reality, not just potentially; really acted or acting; occurring in fact.
  3. In action at the time being; now existing; current.
  4. Used as intensifier to emphasise a following noun; exact, very.

annual

noun
  1. An annual publication; a book, periodical, journal, report, comic book, yearbook, etc., which is published serially once a year, which may or may not be in addition to regular weekly or monthly publication.
  2. An annual plant; a plant with a life span of just one growing season; a plant which naturally germinates, flowers and dies in one year. Compare biennial, perennial.
  3. A medical checkup taking place once a year.
  4. A pantomime taking place once a year.
adjective
  1. Happening once every year.
  2. Of, for, or relating to a whole year, often as a recurring cycle; determined or reckoned by the year; accumulating in the course of a year; performed, executed, or completed over the course of a year. See also circannual.
  3. (of a plant) Having a life cycle that is completed in only one growing season; e.g. beans, corn, marigold. See Annual plant in Wikipedia. Compare biennial, perennial.
  4. Living or lasting just one season or year, as certain insects or insect colonies.

annul

verb
  1. To formally revoke the validity of.
  2. To dissolve (a marital union) on the grounds that it is not valid.

aunt

noun
  1. The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent.
  2. The female cousin of one’s parent.
  3. A woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
  4. Any elderly woman.
  5. A procuress or bawd.

cannula

noun
  1. A tube inserted in the body to drain or inject fluid.
  2. A hose or tube that connects directly to an oxygen (O2) bottle/source from the user's nose, commonly used by aircraft pilots or others needing direct oxygen breathing apparatus.

caul

noun
  1. A style of close-fitting circular cap worn by women in the sixteenth century and later, often made of linen.
  2. (often capitalized, used on maps) An entry to a mill lead taken from a burn or stream (a mill lead (or mill waterway) is generally smaller than a canal but moves a large volume of water).
  3. A membrane.
  4. The thin membrane which covers the lower intestines; the omentum.
  5. The amnion which encloses the foetus before birth, especially that part of it which sometimes shrouds a baby’s head at birth (traditionally considered to be good luck).
  6. The surface of a press that makes contact with panel product, especially a removable plate or sheet.
  7. A strip or block of wood used to distribute or direct clamping force.
  8. Caul fat.

clutch

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The claw of a predatory animal or bird.
  2. (by extension) A grip, especially one seen as rapacious or evil.
  3. A device to interrupt power transmission, commonly used to separate the engine and gearbox in a car.
  4. The pedal in a car that disengages power and torque transmission from the engine (through the drivetrain) to the drive wheels.
  5. Any device for gripping an object, as at the end of a chain or tackle.
  6. A small handbag or purse with no straps or handle.
verb
  1. To seize, as though with claws.
  2. To grip or grasp tightly.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A brood of chickens or a sitting of eggs.
  2. A group or bunch (of people or things).
verb
  1. To hatch.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. An important or critical situation.
adjective
  1. Performing or tending to perform well in difficult, high-pressure situations.

cull

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A selection.
  2. An organised killing of selected animals.
  3. (farming) An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.
  4. (seafood industry) A lobster having only one claw.
  5. A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.
verb
  1. To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).
  2. To gather, collect.
  3. To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.
  4. To kill (animals etc).
  5. To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A fool, gullible person; a dupe.

cult

noun
  1. A group or sect of people with a deviant religious, philosophical or cultural identity, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members.
  2. Devotion to a saint.
  3. The veneration and religious rites given to a deity, esp. in a historical polytheistic context.
  4. A religion that evolved out of another religion but has become a different religion through developing a radically different theology.
  5. A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.
adjective
  1. Of or relating to a cult.
  2. Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
adjective
  1. True to the ideology of black metal or a stereotypical manifestation of that subculture.

haul

noun
  1. An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug.
  2. The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long.
  3. An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip.
  4. Short for haul video.
  5. (ropemaking) A bundle of many threads to be tarred.
verb
  1. To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
  2. To draw or pull something heavy.
  3. To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.
  4. To drag, to pull, to tug.
  5. Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.
  6. To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.
  7. To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.
  8. Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).
  9. To haul ass.

haunch

noun
  1. The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters.
  2. The loin and leg of a quadruped, especially when used as food.
  3. A squat vertical support structure.
  4. A jerked underhand throw.
verb
  1. To provide with a haunch or supporting structure.
  2. To throw with an underhand movement.

haunt

noun
  1. A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
  2. A ghost.
  3. A feeding place for animals.
verb
  1. To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
  2. To make uneasy, restless.
  3. To stalk, to follow
  4. To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
  5. To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
  6. To practise; to devote oneself to.
  7. To persist in staying or visiting.

hula

noun
  1. A form of chant and dance, which was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there.
verb
  1. To dance the hula.

hull

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The outer covering of a fruit or seed.
  2. Any covering.
verb
  1. To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The body or frame of a vessel, such as a ship or plane.
  2. (of a set A) The smallest set that possesses a particular property (such as convexity) and contains every point of A; slightly more formally, the intersection of all sets which possess the specified property and of which A is a subset.
verb
  1. To drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.
  2. To hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc.

hunch

noun
  1. A hump; a protuberance.
  2. A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
  3. A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
  4. A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
  5. A push or thrust, as with the elbow.
verb
  1. To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
  2. To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body forward); to curve (one's body) forward (sometimes followed by up).
  3. To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
  4. To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
  5. To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
  6. To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.

hunt

noun
  1. The act of hunting.
  2. A hunting expedition.
  3. An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to it.
  4. A pack of hunting dogs.
verb
  1. To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
  2. To try to find something; search (for).
  3. To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.
  4. To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
  5. To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
  6. (bell-ringing) To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
  7. (bell-ringing) To shift up and down in order regularly.
  8. To be in a state of instability of movement or forced oscillation, as a governor which has a large movement of the balls for small change of load, an arc-lamp clutch mechanism which moves rapidly up and down with variations of current, etc.; also, to seesaw, as a pair of alternators working in parallel.

hutch

noun
  1. A cage for keeping rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.
  2. A piece of furniture in which items may be displayed.
  3. A measure of two Winchester bushels.
  4. The case of a flour bolt.
  5. A car on low wheels, in which coal is drawn in the mine and hoisted out of the pit.
  6. A jig or trough for ore dressing or washing ore.
  7. A baker's kneading-trough.
verb
  1. To hoard or lay up, in a chest.
  2. To wash (ore) in a box or jig.

lacuna

noun
  1. A small opening; a small pit or depression.
  2. A small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
  3. An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar.
  4. Any gap, break, hole, or lack in a set of things; something missing.
  5. A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
  6. A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language.

launch

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built. (Compare: to splash a ship.)
  2. The act or fact of launching (a ship/vessel, a project, a new book, etc.).
  3. An event held to celebrate the launch of a ship/vessel, project, a new book, etc.; a launch party.
verb
  1. To throw (a projectile such as a lance, dart or ball); to hurl; to propel with force.
  2. To pierce with, or as with, a lance.
  3. To cause (a vessel) to move or slide from the land or a larger vessel into the water; to set afloat.
  4. To cause (a rocket, balloon, etc., or the payload thereof) to begin its flight upward from the ground.
  5. To send out; to start (someone) on a mission or project; to give a start to (something); to put in operation
  6. To start (a program or feature); to execute or bring into operation.
  7. To release; to put onto the market for sale
  8. Of a ship, rocket, balloon, etc.: to depart on a voyage; to take off.
  9. (often with out) To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to begin.
  10. (of a program) To start to operate.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The boat of the largest size and/or of most importance belonging to a ship of war, and often called the "captain's boat" or "captain's launch".
  2. A boat used to convey guests to and from a yacht.
  3. An open boat of any size powered by steam, petrol, electricity, etc.

luau

noun
  1. An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.

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.

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.

luna

No Definition Found.

lunch

noun
  1. A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.
  2. A break in play between the first and second sessions.
  3. (Minnesota) Any small meal, especially one eaten at a social gathering.
verb
  1. To eat lunch.
  2. To treat to lunch.

lunula

noun
  1. Something shaped like a crescent or half-moon; especially the pale area at the base of the fingernail.

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.

nuthatch

noun
  1. Any of various small passerine birds from the family Sittidae found throughout the Northern hemisphere that have the unusual ability to climb down trees head first.

tactual

adjective
  1. Of, or relating to the sense of touch.

taunt

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A scornful or mocking remark; a jeer or mockery
verb
  1. To make fun of (someone); to goad (a person) into responding, often in an aggressive manner.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Very high or tall.

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.

tuna

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Any of several species of fish of the genus Thunnus in the family Scombridae.
  2. The edible flesh of the tuna.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The prickly pear, a type of cactus native to Mexico in the genus Opuntia.
  2. The fruit of the cactus.

tutu

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A ballet skirt made of layered stiff but light netting.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any of the genus Coriaria of shrubs and trees found in New Zealand.

ulna

noun
  1. The bone of the forearm that extends from the elbow to the wrist on the side opposite to the thumb, corresponding to the fibula of the hind limb. Also, the corresponding bone in the forelimb of any vertebrate.

uncut

adjective
  1. Not cut.
  2. (of a gemstone) Not cut or ground to the desired shape.
  3. (of a book) Not having the page edges trimmed.
  4. (of a play, film etc) Not edited or abridged by a censor.
  5. Not circumcised.

unlatch

verb
  1. Remove from a latch

unclutch

No Definition Found.