Thursday, September 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: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 222

Number of Answers: 37

Points Needed for Genius: 155

Genius requires between 19 and 31 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 80% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 65% 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 222 was in the 73rd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on September 20, 2025.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 37 possible answers rank it in the 44th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were fewer answers than this was on September 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 a 7-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on September 23, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 6.2.
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 213
  • loll 203
  • toot 196
  • naan 180
  • nana 180
  • lilt 144
  • till 144
  • tilt 144
  • nene 139
  • tint 139
  • mama 138
  • mamma 138
  • acacia 133
  • acai 133
  • onto 130
  • toon 130
  • onion 126
  • anal 122
  • anon 121
  • dodo 118
  • tact 118
  • 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
  • allay 106
  • ally 106
  • attar 106
  • cocci 106
  • tattoo 106
  • loon 105
  • tatty 105
  • ammo 104
  • momma 104
  • epee 101
  • peep 101
  • cancan 99


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 107,222 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,801 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*:

  • grugru
  • grunion
  • guiro
  • gunging
  • gunrunning
  • gurging
  • ingroup
  • inpour
  • inpouring
  • inrun
  • progun
  • proroguing
  • prounion
  • prurigo
  • pugging
  • pung
  • pupping
  • pupu
  • puri
  • purin
  • purpurin
  • rigour
  • roguing
  • roup
  • rouping
  • rugging
  • ungrouping
  • unrip
  • unripping
  • unroping
  • upgoing
  • upprop
  • uppropping
  • urping

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

gouging

verb
  1. To make a groove, hole, or mark in by scooping with or as if with a gouge.
  2. To cheat or impose upon; in particular, to charge an unfairly or unreasonably high price.
  3. To dig or scoop (something) out with or as if with a gouge; in particular, to use a thumb to push or try to push the eye (of a person) out of its socket.
  4. To use a gouge.
noun
  1. A mark produced by gouging.

group

noun
  1. A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
  2. A set with an associative binary operation, under which there exists an identity element, and such that each element has an inverse.
  3. An effective divisor on a curve.
  4. A (usually small) group of people who perform music together.
  5. A small number (up to about fifty) of galaxies that are near each other.
  6. A column in the periodic table of chemical elements.
  7. A functional group.
  8. A subset of a culture or of a society.
  9. An air force formation.
  10. A collection of formations or rock strata.
  11. A number of users with same rights with respect to accession, modification, and execution of files, computers and peripherals.
  12. An element of an espresso machine from which hot water pours into the portafilter.
  13. A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.
  14. A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while not during the same period playing any teams that belong to other sets in the division.
  15. A commercial organization.
verb
  1. To put together to form a group.
  2. To come together to form a group.

grouping

verb
  1. To put together to form a group.
  2. To come together to form a group.
noun
  1. A collection of things or people united as a group.
  2. The action of the verb to group.
  3. Shot grouping.

gunning

No Definition Found.

guru

noun
  1. A Hindu or Sikh spiritual teacher.
  2. (sometimes humorous) An influential advisor or mentor.

inuring

verb
  1. To cause someone to become accustomed to something (usually) unpleasant.
  2. To take effect, to be operative.
  3. To commit.

inurn

verb
  1. To place (the remains of a person who has died) in an urn or other container.
  2. To hold or contain (the remains of a person who has died).

inurning

verb
  1. To place (the remains of a person who has died) in an urn or other container.
  2. To hold or contain (the remains of a person who has died).

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.

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.

oppugn

verb
  1. To contradict or controvert; to oppose; to challenge or question the truth or validity of a given statement.

oppugning

verb
  1. To contradict or controvert; to oppose; to challenge or question the truth or validity of a given statement.

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.

popgun

noun
  1. A toy gun that emits a loud pop by firing a cork from a barrel in which a piston slides, compressing the air and forcing the cork out. The cork is traditionally attached to the toy by a piece of string.
  2. A firearm of unimpressive appearance.

pour

noun
  1. The act of pouring.
  2. Something, or an amount, poured.
  3. A downpour, or flood of precipitation.
verb
  1. To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
  2. To send out as in a stream or a flood; to cause (an emotion) to come out; to cause to escape.
  3. To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
  4. To flow, pass or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.
  5. To rain hard.
  6. Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
  7. To move in a throng, as a crowd.

pouring

verb
  1. To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
  2. To send out as in a stream or a flood; to cause (an emotion) to come out; to cause to escape.
  3. To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
  4. To flow, pass or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.
  5. To rain hard.
  6. Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
  7. To move in a throng, as a crowd.
noun
  1. The act by which something is poured.

pronoun

noun
  1. (grammar) A type of noun that refers anaphorically to another noun or noun phrase, but which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective. English examples include I, you, him, who, me, my, each other.

pruning

verb
  1. To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
verb
  1. To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
  2. To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
  3. To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
  4. To preen; to prepare; to dress.
noun
  1. A removal of excess material from a tree or shrub.
  2. Something obtained by pruning, as a twig.
  3. A method of enumeration that allows the cutting out of parts of a decision tree.

punning

verb
  1. To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.
  2. To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.
noun
  1. The action of the verb to pun.
adjective
  1. That makes or uses a pun.

purging

noun
  1. The process or act of purging, such as by the use of a purgative.
  2. The process or act of cleansing from sin or guilt.
verb
  1. To clean thoroughly; to cleanse; to rid of impurities.
  2. To free from sin, guilt, or the burden or responsibility of misdeeds
  3. To remove by cleansing; to wash away.
  4. To void or evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit.
  5. To cause someone to purge, operate on (somebody) as or with a cathartic or emetic, or in a similar manner.
  6. To clear of a charge, suspicion, or imputation
  7. To clarify; to clear the dregs from (liquor).
  8. To become pure, as by clarification.
  9. To have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.
  10. To trim, dress or prune.
noun
  1. The act or an instance of eliminating contamination: a purification, a cleansing, particularly:
  2. The removal of waste from the human body, particularly:
  3. Vomiting; vomiting induced by purgatives.
  4. That which is purged: contamination, a contaminant; refuse; sin; etc.

purr

noun
  1. The vibrating sound made by a cat in its throat when contented.
  2. A throaty, seductive sound of pleasure made by a person.
  3. The low consistent rumble made by an engine at slow speed
verb
  1. Of a cat, to make a vibrating sound in its throat when contented.
  2. To say (something) in a throaty, seductive manner.
  3. To make a vibrating throaty sound, as from pleasure.
  4. (of an engine) To make a low and consistent rumbling sound.
interjection
  1. Throat vibrating sound made by a cat.

purring

verb
  1. Of a cat, to make a vibrating sound in its throat when contented.
  2. To say (something) in a throaty, seductive manner.
  3. To make a vibrating throaty sound, as from pleasure.
  4. (of an engine) To make a low and consistent rumbling sound.
noun
  1. A sound that purrs.
noun
  1. A traditional English sport in which two combatants hold each other by the collar while trying to kick each other's shin

rouging

verb
  1. To apply rouge (makeup).

ruin

noun
  1. (sometimes in the plural) The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.
  2. The state of being a ruin, destroyed or decayed.
  3. Something that leads to serious trouble or destruction.
  4. A fall or tumble.
  5. A change that destroys or defeats something; destruction; overthrow.
  6. Complete financial loss; bankruptcy.
verb
  1. To cause the fiscal ruin of.
  2. To destroy or make something no longer usable.
  3. To cause severe financial loss to; to bankrupt or drive out of business.
  4. To upset or overturn the plans or progress of, or to have a disastrous effect on something.
  5. To make something less enjoyable or likeable.
  6. To reveal the ending of (a story); to spoil.
  7. To fall into a state of decay.
  8. To seduce or debauch, and thus harm the social standing of.

ruing

verb
  1. To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
  2. To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
  3. To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
  4. To feel compassion or pity.
  5. To feel sorrow or regret.

ruining

verb
  1. To cause the fiscal ruin of.
  2. To destroy or make something no longer usable.
  3. To cause severe financial loss to; to bankrupt or drive out of business.
  4. To upset or overturn the plans or progress of, or to have a disastrous effect on something.
  5. To make something less enjoyable or likeable.
  6. To reveal the ending of (a story); to spoil.
  7. To fall into a state of decay.
  8. To seduce or debauch, and thus harm the social standing of.
noun
  1. The act or process by which something is ruined.

rung

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.
  2. A crosspiece between legs of a chair.
  3. A position in a hierarchy.
  4. A floor timber in a ship.
  5. One of the stakes of a cart; a spar; a heavy staff.
  6. One of the radial handles projecting from the rim of a steering wheel.
  7. One of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. Of a bell, etc., to produce a resonant sound.
  2. To make (a bell, etc.) produce a resonant sound.
  3. To produce (a sound) by ringing.
  4. To produce the sound of a bell or a similar sound.
  5. Of something spoken or written, to appear to be, to seem, to sound.
  6. To telephone (someone).
  7. To resound, reverberate, echo.
  8. To produce music with bells.
  9. To repeat often, loudly, or earnestly.
adjective
  1. Of a pig: having a ring through the nose.

running

verb
  1. To move swiftly.
  2. (fluids) To flow.
  3. (of a vessel) To sail before the wind, in distinction from reaching or sailing close-hauled.
  4. To control or manage, be in charge of.
  5. To be a candidate in an election.
  6. To make run in a race or an election.
  7. To exert continuous activity; to proceed.
  8. To be presented in the media.
  9. To print or broadcast in the media.
  10. To smuggle (illegal goods).
  11. To sort through a large volume of produce in quality control.
  12. To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.
  13. To execute or carry out a plan, procedure or program.
  14. To pass or go quickly in thought or conversation.
  15. To become different in a way mentioned (usually to become worse).
  16. To cost a large amount of money.
  17. Of stitches or stitched clothing, to unravel.
  18. To pursue in thought; to carry in contemplation.
  19. To cause to enter; to thrust.
  20. To drive or force; to cause, or permit, to be driven.
  21. To cause to be drawn; to mark out; to indicate; to determine.
  22. To encounter or incur (a danger or risk).
  23. To put at hazard; to venture; to risk.
  24. To tease with sarcasms and ridicule.
  25. To sew (a seam) by passing the needle through material in a continuous line, generally taking a series of stitches on the needle at the same time.
  26. To control or have precedence in a card game.
  27. To be in form thus, as a combination of words.
  28. To be popularly known; to be generally received.
  29. To have growth or development.
  30. To tend, as to an effect or consequence; to incline.
  31. To have a legal course; to be attached; to continue in force, effect, or operation; to follow; to go in company.
  32. To encounter or suffer (a particular, usually bad, fate or misfortune).
  33. To strike (the ball) in such a way as to cause it to run along the ground, as when approaching a hole.
  34. To speedrun.
noun
  1. The action of the verb to run.
  2. The activity of running as a form of exercise, as a sport, or for any other reason
  3. That which runs or flows; the quantity of a liquid which flows in a certain time or during a certain operation.
  4. The discharge from an ulcer or other sore.
adjective
  1. Moving or advancing at a run.
  2. Present, current.
  3. Flowing; easy; cursive.
  4. Continuous; ongoing; keeping along step by step.
  5. Having a continuous design or pattern.
  6. Consecutive.
  7. Extending by a slender climbing or trailing stem.
  8. Discharging pus.
  9. (of a nose) Discharging snot or mucus.
adverb
  1. Consecutively; in a row
preposition
  1. Approaching; about; roughly.

ungroup

verb
  1. To remove from a group; to separate.

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.

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

unpinning

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

unrig

verb
  1. To remove the rigging from (a vessel, etc.).
  2. To disable.
  3. To undress (someone).

unrigging

verb
  1. To remove the rigging from (a vessel, etc.).
  2. To disable.
  3. To undress (someone).

upon

adverb
  1. Being the target of an action.
preposition
  1. Physically above and in contact with.
  2. Physically directly supported by.
  3. Being followed by another so as to form a series.
  4. At (a prescribed point in time).
  5. On.

upping

verb
  1. To increase or raise.
  2. To promote.
  3. (usually in combination with another verb) To act suddenly.
  4. To ascend; to climb up.
  5. To upload.
noun
  1. The act of increasing something.

urging

verb
  1. To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
  2. To press the mind or will of; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
  3. To provoke; to exasperate.
  4. To press hard upon; to follow closely.
  5. To present in an urgent manner; to insist upon.
  6. To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with.
  7. To press onward or forward.
  8. To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.