Wednesday, September 17, 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: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 260

Number of Answers: 51

Points Needed for Genius: 182

Genius requires between 24 and 44 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 79% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, 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 260 was in the 86th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on September 11, 2025.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 51 possible answers rank it in the 78th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on September 14, 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 September 16, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.7.
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 213
  • loll 203
  • toot 196
  • naan 179
  • nana 179
  • lilt 144
  • till 144
  • tilt 144
  • nene 139
  • tint 139
  • mama 137
  • mamma 137
  • acacia 133
  • acai 133
  • onto 130
  • toon 130
  • onion 126
  • anal 121
  • anon 121
  • dodo 117
  • tact 117
  • olio 116
  • boob 115
  • booboo 115
  • baba 114
  • papa 113
  • poop 113
  • lull 111
  • lulu 111
  • call 109
  • calla 109
  • mitt 108
  • mono 107
  • moon 107
  • ratatat 107
  • tart 107
  • tartar 107
  • tutu 107
  • attar 106
  • cocci 106
  • tattoo 106
  • allay 105
  • ally 105
  • loon 105
  • tatty 105
  • ammo 104
  • momma 104
  • epee 100
  • peep 100
  • cancan 99


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 106,899 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,784 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*:

  • cion
  • clon
  • clonic
  • coition
  • colicin
  • colin
  • coloni
  • coni
  • conin
  • conn
  • continuo
  • conto
  • coon
  • cotillon
  • cullion
  • cunit
  • cunt
  • cutin
  • inconnu
  • incult
  • inion
  • inti
  • intinction
  • inulin
  • inunction
  • linin
  • linn
  • lino
  • lintol
  • lunt
  • nicol
  • nicotin
  • nicotinic
  • nill
  • ninon
  • nitinol
  • niton
  • noil
  • nolo
  • noncount
  • nonionic
  • nontonic
  • ontic
  • outcount
  • touton
  • unci
  • uncini
  • unco

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

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.

coconut

noun
  1. A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed.
  2. A hard-shelled seed of this fruit, having white flesh and a fluid-filled central cavity.
  3. The edible white flesh of this fruit.
  4. The coconut palm.
  5. A Hispanic or dark-skinned person who acts “white” (Caucasian), alluding to the fact that a coconut is brown on the outside and white on the inside.
  6. A black person who thinks or acts "white" (European).
  7. A Pacific islander.
  8. A female breast.
  9. The human head (often used in cricket broadcasts when a ball hits or nearly hits a batsman on the head).

cocoon

noun
  1. The silky protective case spun by the larvae of some insects in which they metamorphose, the pupa.
  2. Any similar protective case, whether real or metaphorical.
verb
  1. To envelop in a protective case
  2. To withdraw into such a case.

coin

noun
  1. (money) A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
  2. A token used in a special establishment like a casino.
  3. That which serves for payment or recompense.
  4. Money in general, not limited to coins.
  5. One of the suits of minor arcana in tarot, or a card of that suit.
  6. A corner or external angle.
  7. A small circular slice of food.
  8. A cryptocurrency.
verb
  1. To make of a definite fineness, and convert into coins, as a mass of metal.
  2. (by extension) To make or fabricate.
  3. To acquire rapidly, as money; to make.

colon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The punctuation mark ":".
  2. The triangular colon (especially in context of not being able to type the actual triangular colon).
  3. A rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete.
  4. A clause or group of clauses written as a line, or taken as a standard of measure in ancient manuscripts or texts.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Part of the large intestine; the final segment of the digestive system, after (distal to) the ileum and before (proximal to) the anus.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A husbandman.
  2. A European colonial settler, especially in a French colony.

colonic

noun
  1. An enema.
adjective
  1. Of, relating to, affecting or within the colon.

concoct

verb
  1. To prepare something by mixing various ingredients, especially to prepare food for cooking.
  2. To contrive something using skill or ingenuity.
  3. To digest.

concoction

noun
  1. The preparing of a medicine, food or other substance out of many ingredients.
  2. A mixture prepared in such a way.
  3. Something made up, an invention.
  4. Digestion (of food etc.).
  5. The act of digesting in the mind; rumination.
  6. Abatement of a morbid process, such as fever, and return to a normal condition.
  7. The act of perfecting or maturing.

conic

noun
  1. A conic section.
adjective
  1. Of or relating to a cone or cones.
  2. Shaped like a cone.
  3. Describing a map projection in which meridians are mapped to equally spaced lines radiating out from the apex and parallels of latitude are mapped to circular arcs centred on the apex.

cotillion

noun
  1. A bold dance performed in groups of eight where women lift their skirts to display their ankles.
  2. The music regulating the cotillion.
  3. Ellipsis of cotillion ball; a coming-of-age party meant to present girls newly transitioned into womanhood to the community for courtship.
  4. A kind of woollen material for women's skirts.
verb
  1. To dance the cotillion.

cotton

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Gossypium, a genus of plant used as a source of cotton fiber.
  2. Any plant that encases its seed in a thin fiber that is harvested and used as a fabric or cloth.
  3. Any fiber similar in appearance and use to Gossypium fiber.
  4. The textile made from the fiber harvested from a cotton plant, especially Gossypium.
  5. An item of clothing made from cotton.
verb
  1. To provide with cotton.
  2. To make or become cotton-like
  3. To protect from harsh stimuli, coddle, or muffle.
  4. To rub or burnish with cotton.
adjective
  1. Made of cotton.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To get on with someone or something; to have a good relationship with someone.

council

noun
  1. A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).
  2. Discussion or deliberation.

count

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The act of counting or tallying a quantity.
  2. The result of a tally that reveals the number of items in a set; a quantity counted.
  3. A countdown.
  4. A charge of misconduct brought in a legal proceeding.
  5. The number of balls and strikes, respectively, on a batter's in-progress plate appearance.
  6. An object of interest or account; value; estimation.
verb
  1. To recite numbers in sequence.
  2. To determine the number (of objects in a group).
  3. To be of significance; to matter.
  4. To be an example of something: often followed by as and an indefinite noun.
  5. To consider something an example of something.
  6. To take account or note (of).
  7. To plead orally; to argue a matter in court; to recite a count.
adjective
  1. (grammar) Countable.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The male ruler of a county.
  2. A nobleman holding a rank intermediate between dukes and barons.
  3. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and viscounts.

icon

noun
  1. An image, symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion.
  2. (especially Eastern Christianity) A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels.
  3. (by extension) A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.
  4. A small picture that represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function.)
  5. A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons.

iconic

adjective
  1. Relating to, or having the characteristics of, an icon.
  2. Famously and distinctively representative of its type.
  3. Representing something; symbolic.

into

preposition
  1. To or towards the inside of.
  2. To or towards the region of.
  3. Against, especially with force or violence.
  4. Indicates transition into another form or substance.
  5. After the start of.
  6. Interested in or attracted to.
  7. Expressing the operation of multiplication.
  8. Expressing the operation of division, with the denominator given first. Usually with "goes".
  9. Investigating the subject (of).

intuit

verb
  1. To know intuitively or by immediate perception.

intuition

noun
  1. Immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes.
  2. A perceptive insight gained by the use of this faculty.

ionic

adjective
  1. Of, relating to, or containing ions

linocut

noun
  1. A type of woodcut in which a block of linoleum is used for the relief surface; the design cut into the block.

lint

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A fine material made by scraping cotton or linen cloth; used for dressing wounds.
  2. Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc.
  3. The fibrous coat of thick hairs covering the seeds of the cotton plant.
  4. Raw cotton ready for baling.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To perform a static check on (source code) to detect stylistic or programmatic errors.

lion

noun
  1. A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe.
  2. (by extension) Any of various extant and extinct big cats, especially the mountain lion.
  3. A Chinese foo dog.
  4. An individual who shows strength and courage, attributes associated with the lion.
  5. A famous person regarded with interest and curiosity.
  6. A light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion.
  7. An old Scottish coin, with a lion on the obverse, worth 74 shillings.
adjective
  1. Of the light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion.

locution

noun
  1. A phrase or expression connected to an individual or a group of individuals through repeated usage.
  2. The use of a word or phrase in an unusual or specialized way.
  3. A supernatural revelation where a religious figure, statue or icon speaks, usually to a saint.

loin

noun
  1. The part of the body (of humans and quadrupeds) at each side of the backbone, between the ribs and hips
  2. Any of several cuts of meat taken from this part of an animal

loon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An idler, a lout.
  2. A boy, a lad.
  3. A harlot; mistress.
  4. A simpleton.
  5. A crazy or deranged person.
  6. An English soldier of an expeditionary army in Ireland.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Any of various birds, of the order Gaviiformes, of North America and Europe that dive for fish and have a short tail, webbed feet and a yodeling cry.

lotion

noun
  1. A low- to medium-viscosity topical preparation intended for application to unbroken skin.
  2. A washing, especially of the skin for the purpose of beautification.
verb
  1. To cover or treat with a lotion.

nonillion

No Definition Found.

nonunion

noun
  1. Lack of union; failure to become united.
  2. The failure of a broken bone to heal
adjective
  1. Not part of a labor union; not unionized.

noon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The ninth hour of the day counted from sunrise; around three o'clock in the afternoon.
  2. Time of day when the sun is in its zenith; twelve o'clock in the day, midday.
  3. The corresponding time in the middle of the night; midnight.
  4. The highest point; culmination.
verb
  1. To relax or sleep around midday

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The letter ن in the Arabic script.

notion

noun
  1. Mental apprehension of whatever may be known, thought, or imagined; idea, concept.
  2. A sentiment; an opinion.
  3. Sense; mind.
  4. An invention; an ingenious device; a knickknack.
  5. Any small article used in sewing and haberdashery, either for attachment to garments or as a tool, such as a button, zipper, or thimble.
  6. Inclination; intention; disposition.

noun

noun
  1. (grammar, narrow sense) A word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
  2. (grammar, now rare, broad sense) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.
verb
  1. To convert a word to a noun.

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.

nuncio

noun
  1. The ecclesiastic title of a permanent diplomatic representative of the Roman Catholic Church to a sovereign state or international organization, who is accorded a rank equivalent to an accredited ambassador, and may also be given additional privileges including recognition as Dean in a country's diplomatic corps.
  2. (by extension) One who bears a message; a messenger.
  3. Any member of any Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Galicia (of the Austrian Partition), Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Poland, or Grand Duchy of Posen.

octillion

No Definition Found.

onion

noun
  1. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
  2. The bulb of such a plant.
  3. The genus as a whole.
  4. A ball.
  5. A person from Bermuda or of Bermudian descent.

onto

adjective
  1. (of a function) Assuming each of the values in its codomain; having its range equal to its codomain.
preposition
  1. Upon; on top of.
  2. Aware of.
  3. Being an onto function with a codomain of (see below).

tinct

No Definition Found.

tint

noun
  1. A slight coloring.
  2. A pale or faint tinge of any color; especially, a variation of a color obtained by adding white (contrast shade)
  3. A color considered with reference to other very similar colors.
  4. A shaded effect in engraving, produced by the juxtaposition of many fine parallel lines.
verb
  1. To shade, to color.

tonic

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A substance with medicinal properties intended to restore or invigorate.
  2. Tonic water.
  3. (Massachusetts) Any of various carbonated, non-alcoholic beverages; soda pop.
  4. Someone or something that revitalises or reinvigorates.
adjective
  1. Pertaining to tension, especially of muscles.
  2. Restorative, curative or invigorating.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The first note of a diatonic scale; the keynote.
  2. The triad built on the tonic note.
  3. A tonic element or letter; a vowel or a diphthong.
adjective
  1. Pertaining to or based upon the first note of a diatonic scale.
  2. Pertaining to the accent or stress in a word or in speech.
  3. Of or relating to tones or sounds; specifically being or relating to a speech sound made with tone unmixed and undimmed by obstruction, i.e. a vowel or diphthong.

toon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A cartoon, especially an animated television show.
  2. A player's avatar or visible character in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A southeast Asian and Australian tree (Toona ciliata or Toona australis) of the mahogany family with fragrant dark red wood and flowers that yield a dye.
  2. The wood of this tree.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A town.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A melody.
  2. A song, or short musical composition.
  3. The act of tuning or maintenance.
  4. The state or condition of being correctly tuned.
  5. Temper; frame of mind.
  6. A sound; a note; a tone.
  7. Order; harmony; concord.

tuition

noun
  1. A sum of money paid for instruction (such as in a high school, boarding school, university, or college).
  2. The training or instruction provided by a teacher or tutor.
  3. Care, guardianship.

tunic

noun
  1. A garment worn over the torso, with or without sleeves, and of various lengths reaching from the hips to the ankles.
  2. Any covering, such as seed coat or the organ that covers a membrane.

uncoil

verb
  1. To unwind or untwist (something).
  2. To unwind or untwist oneself.

uncool

adjective
  1. Not in accord with the current fashion, standards or mores of a particular group; not cool

unction

noun
  1. A salve or ointment.
  2. A religious or ceremonial anointing.
  3. A balm or something that soothes.
  4. A quality in language, address or delivery which expresses sober and fervent emotion.
  5. A smug, exaggerated use of language; smarminess.
  6. Divine or sanctifying grace.

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.

union

noun
  1. The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one.
  2. The state of being united or joined; a state of unity or harmony.
  3. That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league.
  4. A trade union; a workers' union.
  5. An association of students at a university for social and/or political purposes; also in some cases a debating body.
  6. A joint or other connection uniting parts of machinery, such as pipes.
  7. The set containing all of the elements of two or more sets.
  8. The act or state of marriage.
  9. Sexual intercourse.
  10. A data structure that can store any of various types of item, but only one at a time.
  11. A large, high-quality pearl.
  12. An affiliation of several parishes for joint support and management of their poor; also the jointly-owned workhouse.
verb
  1. To combine sets using the union operation.

unit

noun
  1. A particular, minute unit of mass, defined differently for different substances, but so that varying substances of the same general type have the property that one international unit of the one has the same effect on the human body as one international unit of the other.
noun
  1. Oneness, singularity, seen as a component of a whole number; a magnitude of one.
  2. A standard measure of a quantity.
  3. The number one.
  4. An organized group comprising people and/or equipment.
  5. A member of a military organization.
  6. Any military element whose structure is prescribed by competent authority, such as a table of organization and equipment; specifically, part of an organization.
  7. An organization title of a subdivision of a group in a task force.
  8. A standard or basic quantity into which an item of supply is divided, issued or detailed. In this meaning, also called unit of issue.
  9. With regard to Reserve Components of the Armed Forces, denotes a Selected Reserve unit organized, equipped, and trained for mobilization to serve on active duty as a unit or to augment or be augmented by another unit. Headquarters and support functions without wartime missions are not considered units.
  10. The identity element, neutral element.
  11. An element having an inverse, an invertible element; an associate of the unity.
  12. In an adjunction, a natural transformation from the identity functor of the domain of the left adjoint functor to the composition of the right adjoint functor with the left adjoint functor.
  13. A volume of rock or ice of identifiable origin and age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features (facies) that characterize it.
  14. An item which may be sold singly.
  15. A unit of alcohol.
  16. One kilowatt-hour (as recorded on an electricity meter).
  17. A measure of housing equivalent to the living quarters of one household; an apartment where a group of apartments is contained in one or more multi-storied buildings or a group of dwellings is in one or more single storey buildings, usually arranged around a driveway.
  18. A gold coin of the reign of James I, worth twenty shillings.
  19. A work unit.
  20. A physically large person.
adjective
  1. For each unit.
  2. Having a size or magnitude of one.

unlit

adjective
  1. Not lit

until

preposition
  1. Up to the time of (something happening).
  2. Up to (a certain place)
  3. Before (a time).
  4. To; physically towards.
conjunction
  1. Up to the time that (a condition becomes true).
  2. Before (a condition becoming true).

unto

preposition
  1. Up to, indicating a motion towards a thing and then stopping at it.
  2. To, indicating an indirect object.
conjunction
  1. Up to the time or degree that; until.