Tuesday, August 5, 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: 79

Number of Answers: 18

Points Needed for Genius: 55

Genius requires between 8 and 16 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 85% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 63% 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 79 was in the 3rd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this low was on March 4, 2025.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 18 possible answers rank it in the 0th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were fewer answers than this was on August 9, 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 August 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 206
  • loll 201
  • toot 193
  • naan 177
  • nana 177
  • lilt 143
  • till 143
  • tilt 143
  • tint 138
  • nene 137
  • mama 135
  • mamma 135
  • acacia 130
  • acai 130
  • onto 127
  • toon 127
  • onion 123
  • anon 120
  • anal 119
  • olio 116
  • tact 114
  • boob 113
  • booboo 113
  • dodo 113
  • papa 112
  • poop 112
  • baba 111
  • lull 110
  • lulu 110
  • call 108
  • calla 108
  • mitt 108
  • ratatat 106
  • tart 106
  • tartar 106
  • attar 105
  • mono 105
  • moon 105
  • tatty 105
  • tutu 105
  • ammo 104
  • momma 104
  • tattoo 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 105,011 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,704 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*:

  • bimini
  • bumkin
  • bunkum
  • bunn
  • kinin
  • minikin
  • minium
  • muni
  • pipkin
  • punkin
  • ununbium
  • unununium

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

bikini

noun
  1. A brief two-piece bathing suit worn by women, especially one that exposes the midriff and navel.
  2. A brief bathing suit worn by men.

bumpkin

noun
  1. A clumsy, unsophisticated person; a yokel.
  2. A short boom or spar used to extend a sail or secure a stay.

bunk

Etymology 1

noun
  1. One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers.
  2. A built-in bed on board ship, often erected in tiers one above the other.
  3. A cot.
  4. A wooden case or box, which serves for a seat in the daytime and for a bed at night.
  5. A piece of wood placed on a lumberman's sled to sustain the end of heavy timbers.
verb
  1. To occupy a bunk.
  2. To provide a bunk.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Bunkum; senseless talk, nonsense.
adjective
  1. Defective, broken, not functioning properly

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually as in 'to bunk off').
  2. To expel from a school.

kink

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.
verb
  1. To laugh loudly.
  2. To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.
  2. A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.
  3. An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
  4. Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
  5. A positive 1-soliton solution to the Sine–Gordon equation
verb
  1. To form a kink or twist.
  2. To be formed into a kink or twist.

mini

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Miniature, tiny, small.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A miniskirt.
  2. A minicomputer.

minim

noun
  1. A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
  2. A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, 1/60 fluid drachm. Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9 grain (weight) of water.
  3. A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
  4. Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.
  5. The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.
  6. A little man or being; a dwarf.
  7. A small fish; a minnow.
  8. A short poetical encomium.

minimum

noun
  1. The lowest limit.
  2. The smallest amount.
  3. A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).
  4. A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.
  5. The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.
adjective
  1. To the lowest degree.

mink

noun
  1. (plural mink or minks) Any of various semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals in the Mustelinae subfamily, similar to weasels, with dark fur, native to Europe and America, of which two species in different genera are extant: the American mink (Neovison vison) and the European mink (Mustela lutreola).
  2. (plural mink) The fur or pelt of a mink, used to make apparel.
  3. (plural minks) An article of clothing made of mink.
  4. (plural minks) An individual with poor personal hygiene; a smelly person.

nimbi

noun
  1. A circle of light; a halo.
  2. A gray rain cloud.

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.

numb

verb
  1. To cause to become numb (physically or emotionally).
  2. To cause (a feeling) to be less intense.
  3. To cause (the mind, faculties, etc.) to be less acute.
  4. To become numb (especially physically).
adjective
  1. Physically unable to feel, not having the power of sensation.
  2. Emotionally unable to feel or respond in a normal way.
  3. Causing numbness.

pink

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The common minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus.
  2. A young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, before it becomes a smolt; a parr.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A narrow boat.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A stab.
verb
  1. To decorate a piece of clothing or fabric by adding holes or by scalloping the fringe.
  2. To prick with a sword.
  3. To wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule.
  4. To choose; to cull; to pick out.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. Any of various flowers in the genus Dianthus, sometimes called carnations.
  2. A perfect example; excellence, perfection; the embodiment of some quality.
  3. The colour of this flower, between red and white; pale red.
  4. Hunting pink; scarlet, as worn by hunters.
  5. One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 6 points.
  6. An unlettered and uncultured, but relatively prosperous, member of the middle classes; compare Babbitt, bourgeoisie.
  7. The vagina or vulva.
verb
  1. To become pink in color, to redden.
  2. To turn (something) pink.
  3. To turn (a topaz or other gemstone) pink by the application of heat.
adjective
  1. Having a colour between red and white; pale red.
  2. Of a fox-hunter's jacket: scarlet.
  3. Having conjunctivitis.
  4. By comparison to red (communist), describing someone who sympathizes with the ideals of communism without actually being a Russian-style communist: a pinko.
  5. Relating to women or girls.
  6. Relating to homosexuals as a group within society.
noun
  1. A socialist who is not wholly communist.

Etymology 5

verb
  1. Of a motor car, to emit a high "pinking" noise, usually as a result of ill-set ignition timing for the fuel used (in a spark ignition engine).
  2. Of a musical instrument, to sound a very high-pitched, short note.

Etymology 6

verb
  1. To wink; to blink.
adjective
  1. Half-shut; winking.

Etymology 7

noun
  1. Any of various lake pigments or dyes in yellow, yellowish green, or brown shades made with plant coloring and a metallic oxide base.

pinup

noun
  1. A photograph, printed in a magazine or other publication, of a sexually attractive person (often nude or provocatively dressed), and intended to be removed and pinned up on a wall.
  2. The person so depicted.
  3. Figurehead, person who represents an idea, cause etc.

pippin

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A seed

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any of several varieties of eating apple that have a yellow or green skin with patches of red
  2. Any of several roundish or oblate apple varieties
  3. An apple tree raised from a seed (not grafted)

pumpkin

noun
  1. A domesticated plant, in species Cucurbita pepo, similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
  2. The round yellow or orange fruit of this plant.
  3. The color of the fruit of the pumpkin plant.
  4. Any of a number of cultivars from the genus Cucurbita; known in the US as winter squash.
  5. A term of endearment for someone small and cute.

punk

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A person used for sex, particularly:
  2. A worthless person, particularly:
  3. Short for punk rock, a genre known for short, loud, energetic songs with electric guitars and strong drums.
  4. Short for punk rocker, a musician known for playing punk rock or a fan of the genre.
  5. The larger nonconformist social movement associated with punk rock and its fans.
verb
  1. To pimp.
  2. To forcibly perform anal sex upon an unwilling partner.
  3. To prank.
  4. (especially with "out") To give up or concede; to act like a wimp.
  5. (often with "out" or "up") To adapt or embellish in the style of the punk movement.
adjective
  1. Worthless, contemptible, particularly
  2. Of or concerning punk rock or its associated subculture.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any material used as tinder for lighting fires, such as agaric, dried wood, or touchwood, but especially wood altered by certain fungi.
  2. A utensil for lighting wicks or fuses (such as those of fireworks) resembling stick incense.

unkink

verb
  1. To remove the kinks from.

unpin

verb
  1. To unfasten by removing a pin.
  2. To detach (an icon, application, etc.) from the place where it was previously pinned.
  3. To get out of a pin