Friday, January 2, 2026

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: 23

Points Needed for Genius: 55

Genius requires between 8 and 21 words. You need at least a 6-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 86% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 62% 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 79 was in the 3rd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this low was on December 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 23 possible answers rank it in the 7th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were fewer answers than this was on December 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 6-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on December 30, 2025.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 4.8.
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 227
  • loll 209
  • toot 206
  • naan 188
  • nana 188
  • lilt 150
  • till 150
  • tilt 150
  • nene 148
  • tint 145
  • mama 141
  • mamma 141
  • onion 137
  • onto 136
  • toon 136
  • acacia 134
  • acai 134
  • anal 129
  • anon 127
  • olio 124
  • dodo 120
  • tact 120
  • baba 119
  • papa 119
  • boob 116
  • booboo 116
  • lull 116
  • lulu 116
  • poop 115
  • cocci 113
  • call 112
  • calla 112
  • mitt 112
  • mono 112
  • moon 112
  • tutu 112
  • ratatat 110
  • tart 110
  • tartar 110
  • tattoo 110
  • attar 109
  • loon 109
  • allay 108
  • ally 108
  • ammo 107
  • momma 107
  • tatty 106
  • roar 104
  • coot 103
  • epee 103


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 111,682 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,889 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*:

  • bene
  • benne
  • benny
  • boney
  • bonne
  • bunn
  • ennuye
  • ennuyee
  • eyen
  • eyne
  • hunh
  • nobby
  • unbe

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

been

noun
  1. A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for collecting pollen and (in some species) producing wax and honey.

bonbon

noun
  1. A sweet, especially a small chocolate-covered candy.
  2. A small, spherical savory snack or canapé.
  3. A Christmas cracker.

bone

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
  2. Any of the components of an endoskeleton, made of bone.
  3. A bone of a fish; a fishbone.
  4. A bonefish
  5. One of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame, the boning, originally made of whalebone.
  6. One of the fragments of bone held between the fingers of the hand and rattled together to keep time to music.
  7. Anything made of bone, such as a bobbin for weaving bone lace.
  8. The framework of anything.
  9. An off-white colour, like the colour of bone.
  10. A dollar.
  11. The wishbone formation.
  12. An erect penis; a boner.
  13. (chiefly in the plural) A domino or dice.
verb
  1. To prepare (meat, etc) by removing the bone or bones from.
  2. To fertilize with bone.
  3. To put whalebone into.
  4. To make level, using a particular procedure; to survey a level line.
  5. (usually of a man) To have sexual intercourse with.
  6. (in Aboriginal culture) To perform "bone pointing", a ritual that is intended to bring illness or even death to the victim.
  7. (usually with "up") To study.
  8. To polish boots to a shiny finish.
adjective
  1. Of an off-white colour, like the colour of bone.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To apprehend, steal.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To sight along an object or set of objects to check whether they are level or in line.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).
  2. The common European bittern.

bonny

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Merry; happy.
  2. Beautiful; pretty; attractive.
  3. Fine, good (often used ironically).

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.

bonobo

noun
  1. The pygmy chimpanzee, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.

bony

adjective
  1. Resembling, having the appearance or consistence of, or relating to bone; osseous.
  2. Full of bones
  3. With little flesh; skinny, thin
  4. Having prominent bones

boon

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A prayer; petition.
  2. That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
  3. A good thing; a blessing or benefit; a thing to be thankful for.
  4. An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Good; prosperous.
  2. Kind; bountiful; benign.
  3. (Now only in boon companion) gay; merry; jovial; convivial.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

bunny

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A rabbit, especially a juvenile.
  2. A bunny girl: a nightclub waitress who wears a costume having rabbit ears and tail.
  3. In basketball, an easy shot (i.e., one right next to the bucket) that is missed.
adjective
  1. Easy or unchallenging.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A swelling from a blow; a bump.
  2. A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A culvert or short covered drain connecting two ditches.
  2. A chine or gully formed by water running over the edge of a cliff; a wooded glen or small ravine opening through the cliff line to the sea.
  3. Any small drain or culvert.
  4. A brick arch or wooden bridge, covered with earth across a drawn or carriage in a water-meadow, just wide enough to allow a hay-wagon to pass over.
  5. A small pool of water.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. Bunny chow; a snack of bread filled with curry.

Etymology 5

adjective
  1. Resembling a bun (small bread roll).

ebon

noun
  1. (now poetic) Ebony; an ebony tree.
adjective
  1. Made of ebony.
  2. Black in colour.

ebony

noun
  1. A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
  2. A tree that yields such wood.
  3. A deep, dark black colour.
  4. A black key on a piano or other keyboard instrument.
adjective
  1. Made of ebony wood.
  2. A deep, dark black colour.
  3. Dark-skinned; black; especially in reference to African-Americans.

hobnob

noun
  1. A toast made while touching glasses together.
  2. A drinking together.
  3. An informal chat.
verb
  1. To drink together.
  2. To associate with in a friendly manner, often with those of a higher class or status.
  3. To have or have not; to give or take.
  4. To toast one another by touching glasses.
adjective
  1. On friendly terms; in friendly association.
adverb
  1. At random; at a venture; hit and miss.

hone

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A sharpening stone composed of extra-fine grit used for removing the burr or curl from the blade of a razor or some other edge tool.
  2. A machine tool used in the manufacture of precision bores.
verb
  1. To sharpen with a hone; to whet.
  2. To use a hone to produce a precision bore.
  3. To refine or master (a skill).
  4. To make more acute, intense, or effective.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A kind of swelling in the cheek.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. To grumble.
  2. To pine, lament, or long.

honey

noun
  1. A viscous, sweet fluid produced from plant nectar by bees. Often used to sweeten tea or to spread on baked goods.
  2. A variety of this substance.
  3. Nectar.
  4. Something sweet or desirable.
  5. A term of affection.
  6. A woman, especially an attractive one.
  7. A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
verb
  1. To sweeten; to make agreeable.
  2. To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.
  3. To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.
adjective
  1. Involving or resembling honey.
  2. Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like most types of honey.

honeybee

noun
  1. Any of seven species of bee, in genus Apis, often kept commercially for honey, beeswax, and pollination of crops.

honeybun

noun
  1. A type of bun or pastry sweetened with honey.
  2. Honey; sweetheart (term of endearment)

nene

noun
  1. The Hawaiian goose, Branta sandvicensis, which was designated the state bird of Hawaii in 1957.

neon

noun
  1. The chemical element (symbol Ne) with an atomic number of 10. The lightest of the noble gases, it is a colourless, odorless inert gas.
  2. A form or sample of the element.
  3. Neon signs or lights, collectively.
  4. A neon tetra fish.
adjective
  1. (of a color) That resembles a neon light; extremely bright; fluorescent

none

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A person without religious affiliation.
adverb
  1. To no extent, in no way.
  2. Not at all, not very.
  3. No, not.
pronoun
  1. Not any of a given number or group.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. Those without any religious affiliation: atheists and others outside any organized religion.
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.
noun
  1. The middle of the afternoon, normally between 2 and 4 pm.
noun
  1. (often capitalized) The notional first-quarter day of a Roman month, occurring on the 7th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 5th day of all other months.
  2. (sometimes capitalized) The ninth hour after dawn (about 3 pm).
  3. The divine office appointed to the hour.
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.
noun
  1. The letter ن in the Arabic script.

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.

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.

nubby

adjective
  1. Knobbly; covered with small knobs.
  2. Nub-like, resembling a small bump or protrusion; stubby.

noob

noun
  1. (often pejorative) A newb or newbie; refers to the idea that someone is new to a game, concept, or idea; implying a lack of experience. Also, in some areas the word noob can mean someone is obsessed with things.

enby

No Definition Found.