Thursday, January 22, 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: 2

Maximum Puzzle Score: 225

Number of Answers: 45

Points Needed for Genius: 158

Genius requires between 22 and 39 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 66% 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 225 was in the 74th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on January 20, 2026.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 45 possible answers rank it in the 64th percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on January 21, 2026.
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 January 20, 2026.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.6.
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 228
  • loll 211
  • toot 207
  • naan 190
  • nana 190
  • lilt 151
  • till 151
  • tilt 151
  • nene 148
  • tint 145
  • mama 142
  • mamma 142
  • acacia 137
  • acai 137
  • onion 137
  • onto 136
  • toon 136
  • anal 130
  • anon 129
  • olio 124
  • dodo 121
  • tact 121
  • papa 120
  • baba 119
  • boob 117
  • booboo 117
  • poop 117
  • lull 116
  • lulu 116
  • cocci 114
  • call 113
  • calla 113
  • mitt 113
  • mono 112
  • moon 112
  • tutu 112
  • ratatat 111
  • tart 111
  • tartar 111
  • tattoo 111
  • allay 110
  • ally 110
  • attar 110
  • loon 110
  • tatty 109
  • ammo 107
  • momma 107
  • epee 104
  • meme 104
  • peep 104


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 112,630 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,901 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*:

  • agama
  • agamete
  • agee
  • agemate
  • agene
  • agma
  • agnate
  • anga
  • gaen
  • gagman
  • gagmen
  • gama
  • gane
  • gangue
  • gateman
  • gatemen
  • gaum
  • gaun
  • gean
  • gemma
  • gemmae
  • gemmate
  • genet
  • genette
  • genu
  • genua
  • geta
  • geum
  • guan
  • gumma
  • gummata
  • gunge
  • gunnen
  • gutta
  • guttae
  • guttate
  • magmata
  • manege
  • manganate
  • megagamete
  • menage
  • metage
  • metatag
  • mugg
  • muggee
  • naga
  • nagana
  • taggant
  • tagmeme
  • tanga
  • tannage
  • tautaug
  • tegg
  • tegmen
  • tegmenta
  • tegmentum
  • tegu
  • tegua
  • tegumen
  • tegument
  • tenge
  • tentage
  • tung
  • tunnage
  • ungag
  • unguenta
  • unguentum

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

agate

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A semi-pellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds.
  2. The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5 1/2-point.
  3. One fourteenth of an inch
  4. A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals.
  5. A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.;—so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.
  6. A marble made from agate.
  7. (usually in the plural) A testicle.

Etymology 2

adverb
  1. On the way; agoing.

agent

noun
  1. One who exerts power, or has the power to act
  2. One who acts for, or in the place of, another (the principal), by authority from him/her; someone entrusted to do the business of another
  3. A person who looks for work for another person
  4. Someone who works for an intelligence agency
  5. An active power or cause or substance; something which has the power to produce an effect
  6. In the client-server model, the part of the system that performs information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or server. Especially in the phrase “intelligent agent” it implies some kind of autonomous process which can communicate with other agents to perform some collective task on behalf of one or more humans.
  7. (grammar) The participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation, e.g. "the boy" in the sentences "The boy kicked the ball" and "The ball was kicked by the boy".
  8. A cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.

ague

noun
  1. An acute fever.
  2. An intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits.
  3. The cold fit or rigor of the intermittent fever
  4. A chill, or state of shaking, as with cold.
  5. Malaria.
verb
  1. To strike with an ague, or with a cold fit.

augment

noun
  1. (grammar) In some Indo-European languages, a prefix e- (a- in Sanskrit) indicating a past tense of a verb.
  2. (grammar) In some Bantu languages, an additional vowel prepended to the noun prefix.
  3. An increase.
verb
  1. To increase; to make larger or supplement.
  2. To grow; to increase; to become greater.
  3. To slow the tempo or meter, e.g. for a dramatic or stately passage.
  4. To increase an interval, especially the largest interval in a triad, by a half step (chromatic semitone).
  5. (grammar) To add an augment to.

engage

verb
  1. (heading) To interact socially.
  2. (heading) To interact antagonistically.
  3. (heading) To interact contractually.
  4. (heading) To interact mechanically.
  5. To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).
  6. To entangle.

engagement

noun
  1. An appointment, especially to speak or perform.
  2. Connection or attachment.
  3. (by extension, about human emotional state) The feeling of being compelled, drawn in, connected to what is happening, interested in what will happen next.
  4. The period of time when marriage is planned or promised.
  5. In any situation of conflict, an actual instance of active hostilities.
  6. The point at which the fencers are close enough to join blades, or to make an effective attack during an encounter.

gaga

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Mentally senile.
  2. Crazy.
  3. Infatuated.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A variant of dodgeball played inside a fenced area, usually a hexagon or octagon.

gage

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Something, such as a glove or other pledge, thrown down as a challenge to combat (now usually figurative).
  2. Something valuable deposited as a guarantee or pledge; security, ransom.
verb
  1. To give or deposit as a pledge or security; to pawn.
  2. To wager, to bet.
  3. To bind by pledge, or security; to engage.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
  2. An act of measuring.
  3. An estimate.
  4. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things
  5. A thickness of sheet metal or wire designated by any of several numbering schemes.
  6. The distance between the rails of a railway.
  7. A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space.
  8. The number of stitches per inch, centimetre, or other unit of distance.
  9. Relative positions of two or more vessels with reference to the wind.
  10. The depth to which a vessel sinks in the water.
  11. (plastering) The quantity of plaster of Paris used with common plaster to make it set more quickly.
  12. That part of a shingle, slate, or tile, which is exposed to the weather, when laid; also, one course of such shingles, slates, or tiles.
  13. A unit of measurement which describes how many spheres of bore diameter of a shotgun can be had from one pound of lead; 12 gauge is roughly equivalent to .75 caliber.
  14. (by extension) A shotgun (synecdoche for 12 gauge shotgun, the most common chambering for combat and hunting shotguns).
  15. A tunnel-like ear piercing consisting of a hollow ring embedded in the lobe.
verb
  1. To measure or determine with a gauge; to measure the capacity of.
  2. To estimate.
  3. To appraise the character or ability of; to judge of.
  4. To draw into equidistant gathers by running a thread through it.
  5. To mix (a quantity of ordinary plaster) with a quantity of plaster of Paris.
  6. To chip, hew or polish (stones, bricks, etc) to a standard size and/or shape.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A subspecies of plum, Prunus domestica subsp. italica.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A quart pot.
  2. A pint pot.
  3. (metonymically) A drink.
  4. A tobacco pipe.
  5. A chamberpot.
  6. A small quantity of anything.
  7. Marijuana

game

noun
  1. A playful or competitive activity.
  2. A video game.
  3. (nearly always singular) A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.
  4. Something that resembles a game with rules, despite not being designed.
  5. An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.
  6. Wild animals hunted for food.
  7. (used mostly of males) The ability to seduce someone, usually by strategy.
  8. Mastery; the ability to excel at something.
  9. A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal; a scheme.
verb
  1. To gamble.
  2. To play card games, board games, or video games.
  3. To exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable.
  4. (of males) To perform premeditated seduction strategy.
adjective
  1. Willing to participate.
  2. (of an animal) That shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.
  3. Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.
  4. Injured, lame (of a limb).

gamete

noun
  1. A reproductive cell (sperm in males or eggs in females), having only half of a complete set of chromosomes.

gamma

noun
  1. The third letter of the Greek alphabet (Γ, γ), preceded by beta (Β, β) and followed by delta, (Δ, δ).
  2. The Gamma function, symbolized by Γ.
  3. A constant approximately equal to 0.55721566, symbolized by γ (also known as the Euler–Mascheroni constant).
  4. A non-SI unit of measure of magnetic flux density, equal to 1 nT.
  5. (industries) slope of log-log plot of video input and luminance output.
  6. A second-order measure of derivative price sensitivity, expressed as the rate of change in delta with respect to changes in the underlying asset price.
noun
  1. A nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems.

gamut

noun
  1. A (normally) complete range.
  2. All the notes in the musical scale.
  3. All the colours available to a device such as a monitor or printer.

gang

Etymology 1

verb
  1. To go; walk; proceed.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A number going in company; a number of friends or persons associated for a particular purpose.
  2. A group of laborers under one foreman; a squad.
  3. A criminal group with a common cultural background and identifying features, often associated with a particular section of a city.
  4. A group of criminals or alleged criminals who band together for mutual protection and profit.
  5. A group of politicians united in furtherance of a political goal.
  6. A chain gang.
  7. A combination of similar tools or implements arranged so as, by acting together, to save time or labor; a set.
  8. A set; all required for an outfit.
  9. (electrics) A number of switches or other electrical devices wired into one unit and covered by one faceplate.
  10. (electrics) A group of wires attached as a bundle.
  11. A going, journey; a course, path, track.
  12. An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
verb
  1. To attach similar items together to form a larger unit.

Etymology 3

verb
  1. (obsolete outside Northumbria) To go.

Etymology 4

verb
  1. To participate in a gangbang.
  2. To beat one or a smaller amount of people as a gang.
  3. To belong to a gang; to commit criminal acts as part of a gang.

Etymology 5

noun
  1. The earthy waste substances occurring in metallic ore.

gannet

noun
  1. Any of three species of large seabird in the genus Morus, of the family Sulidae. They have black and white bodies and long pointed wings, and hunt for fish by plunge diving and pursuing their prey underwater.
  2. A voracious eater; a glutton.

gate

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A doorlike structure outside a house.
  2. Doorway, opening, or passage in a fence or wall.
  3. Movable barrier.
  4. A logical pathway made up of switches which turn on or off. Examples are and, or, nand, etc.
  5. The gap between a batsman's bat and pad.
  6. The amount of money made by selling tickets to a concert or a sports event.
  7. (flow cytometry) A line that separates particle type-clusters on two-dimensional dot plots.
  8. Passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark.
  9. The controlling terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
  10. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass through or into.
  11. The channel or opening through which metal is poured into the mould; the ingate.
  12. The waste piece of metal cast in the opening; a sprue or sullage piece. Also written geat and git.
  13. A mechanism, in a film camera and projector, that holds each frame momentarily stationary behind the aperture.
  14. A tally mark consisting of four vertical bars crossed by a diagonal, representing a count of five.
verb
  1. To keep something inside by means of a closed gate.
  2. To punish, especially a child or teenager, by not allowing them to go out.
  3. To open a closed ion channel.
  4. To furnish with a gate.
  5. To turn (an image intensifier) on and off selectively as needed, or to avoid damage. See autogating.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A way, path.
  2. A journey.
  3. A street; now used especially as a combining form to make the name of a street e.g. "Briggate" (a common street name in the north of England meaning "Bridge Street") or Kirkgate meaning "Church Street".
  4. Manner; gait.

gateau

noun
  1. A rich, usually iced, cake.
  2. A dish of minced meat made up like a pudding, and boiled in a shape or mould.

gauge

noun
  1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
  2. An act of measuring.
  3. An estimate.
  4. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things
  5. A thickness of sheet metal or wire designated by any of several numbering schemes.
  6. The distance between the rails of a railway.
  7. A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space.
  8. The number of stitches per inch, centimetre, or other unit of distance.
  9. Relative positions of two or more vessels with reference to the wind.
  10. The depth to which a vessel sinks in the water.
  11. (plastering) The quantity of plaster of Paris used with common plaster to make it set more quickly.
  12. That part of a shingle, slate, or tile, which is exposed to the weather, when laid; also, one course of such shingles, slates, or tiles.
  13. A unit of measurement which describes how many spheres of bore diameter of a shotgun can be had from one pound of lead; 12 gauge is roughly equivalent to .75 caliber.
  14. (by extension) A shotgun (synecdoche for 12 gauge shotgun, the most common chambering for combat and hunting shotguns).
  15. A tunnel-like ear piercing consisting of a hollow ring embedded in the lobe.
verb
  1. To measure or determine with a gauge; to measure the capacity of.
  2. To estimate.
  3. To appraise the character or ability of; to judge of.
  4. To draw into equidistant gathers by running a thread through it.
  5. To mix (a quantity of ordinary plaster) with a quantity of plaster of Paris.
  6. To chip, hew or polish (stones, bricks, etc) to a standard size and/or shape.

gaunt

adjective
  1. Lean, angular and bony
  2. Haggard, drawn and emaciated
  3. Bleak, barren and desolate

gene

noun
  1. A theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms; a gene may take several values and in principle predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form (phenotype), such as hair color.
  2. A segment of DNA or RNA from a cell's or an organism's genome, that may take several forms and thus parameterizes a phenomenon, in general the structure of a protein; locus.

gent

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A gentleman.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Noble; well-bred, courteous; graceful.
  2. Neat; pretty; elegant

Etymology 3

noun
  1. Short for gentamicin.

gnat

noun
  1. Any small insect of the order Diptera, specifically within the suborder Nematocera.

gunman

noun
  1. A criminal armed with a gun, especially a professional killer.

gunmen

noun
  1. A criminal armed with a gun, especially a professional killer.

mage

noun
  1. A magician, wizard or sorcerer.

magenta

noun
  1. A vibrant light purple, purplish-red, reddish-purple, or pinkish purple colour obtained by mixing red and blue light (thus a secondary colour), but primary in the CMYK colour system used in printing.
adjective
  1. Having the colour of fuchsia, fuchsine, light purple.

magma

noun
  1. The molten matter within the earth, the source of the material of lava flows, dikes of eruptive rocks, etc.
  2. A basic algebraic structure consisting of a set equipped with a single binary operation.
  3. Any soft doughy mass.
  4. The residuum after expressing the juice from fruits.

magnate

noun
  1. Powerful industrialist; captain of industry.
  2. A person of rank, influence or distinction in any sphere.

magnet

noun
  1. A piece of material that attracts some metals by magnetism.
  2. (preceded by a noun) A person or thing that attracts what is denoted by the preceding noun.

magnum

noun
  1. A bottle of wine containing 1.5 liters of fluid, double the volume of a standard bottle.
  2. A powerful firearm cartridge, often derived from a shorter, less powerful cartridge calibre that uses the same bullet.
  3. A handgun that fires a cartridge of this calibre; chiefly a revolver, but rarely an autoloader firing an unusually powerful calibre.

manage

noun
  1. The act of managing or controlling something.
  2. (horseriding) Manège.
verb
  1. To direct or be in charge of.
  2. To handle or control (a situation, job).
  3. To handle with skill, wield (a tool, weapon etc.).
  4. To succeed at an attempt.
  5. To achieve (something) without fuss, or without outside help.
  6. To train (a horse) in the manège; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
  7. To treat with care; to husband.
  8. To bring about; to contrive.

management

noun
  1. Administration; the use of limited resources combined with forecasting, planning, leadership and execution skills to achieve predetermined specific goals.
  2. The executives of an organisation, especially senior executives.
  3. Judicious use of means to accomplish an end.

manga

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A comic originating in Japan.
  2. An artistic style heavily used in, and associated with, Japanese comics, and that has also been adopted by a comparatively low number of comics from other countries.
  3. A comic in manga style, regardless of the country of origin.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A covering for a crucifix.

mange

noun
  1. A skin disease of mammals caused by parasitic mites (Sarcoptes spp., Demodecidae spp.).

mega

adjective
  1. Very large.
  2. Great; excellent

mung

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A type of small bean.
  2. The mung bean, cultivated for its sprouts, Vigna radiata or Phaseolus aureus.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To make repeated changes to a file or data which individually may be reversible, yet which ultimately result in an unintentional irreversible destruction of large portions of the original data.
  2. (by extension) To harm, to damage; to destroy.

mutagen

noun
  1. Any agent or substance that can cause genetic mutation.

nametag

noun
  1. A tag with one's name inscribed on it.

negate

verb
  1. To deny the existence, evidence, or truth of; to contradict.
  2. To nullify or cause to be ineffective.
  3. To be negative; bring or cause negative results.
  4. To perform the NOT operation on.

nugget

noun
  1. A small, compact chunk or clump.
  2. A chicken nugget.
  3. A tidbit of something valuable.
  4. A small piece of tasty food, a tidbit.
  5. A type of boot polish.
  6. A bud from the Cannabis sativa plant, especially one that is potent.
  7. An inexperienced, newly trained fighter pilot.
  8. A partial description gleaned from data mining.

nutmeg

noun
  1. An evergreen tree (Myristica fragrans) cultivated in the East Indies for its spicy seeds.
  2. The aromatic seed of this tree, used as a spice.
  3. A grey-brown colour.
  4. The playing of the ball between the legs of an opponent.
verb
  1. To flavour with nutmeg.
  2. To play the ball between the legs of (an opponent).

tang

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor.
  2. A strong or offensive taste; especially, a taste of something extraneous to the thing itself.
  3. A sharp, specific flavor or tinge.
  4. A projecting part of an object by means of which it is secured to a handle, or to some other part.
  5. The part of a knife, fork, file, or other small instrument, which is inserted into the handle.
  6. The projecting part of the breech of a musket barrel, by which the barrel is secured to the stock.
  7. The part of a sword blade to which the handle is fastened.
  8. A group of saltwater fish from the Acanthuridae family, especially the Zebrasoma genus.
  9. (games) A shuffleboard paddle.
  10. Tongue
  11. (by extension) Anything resembling a tongue in form or position such as the tongue of a buckle.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A sharp, twanging sound; an unpleasant tone; a twang.
verb
  1. To strike two metal objects together loudly in order to persuade a swarm of honeybees to land so it may be captured by the beekeeper.
  2. To make a ringing sound; to ring.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. Knotted wrack, Ascophyllum nodosum (coarse blackish seaweed)

Etymology 4

noun
  1. The vagina.
  2. Intercourse with a woman

tangent

noun
  1. A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.
  2. A function of an angle that gives the ratio of the sine to the cosine, in either the real or complex numbers. Symbols: tan, tg.
  3. A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.
  4. A small metal blade in a clavichord that strikes the strings to produce sound.
adjective
  1. Touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point.
  2. Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.

teenage

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Brushwood for fences and hedges.

Etymology 2

adjective
  1. Of or relating to an age between thirteen and nineteen years old.

unguent

noun
  1. Any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.

untag

verb
  1. To remove a tag from.