Saturday, July 27, 2024

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: 186

Number of Answers: 39

Points Needed for Genius: 130

Genius requires between 18 and 34 words. You need at least an 8-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangrams, you need 84% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangrams, you only need 64% 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 186 was in the 61st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on July 26, 2024.
The highest score ever was 537 on January 22, 2021.
The lowest score ever was 47 on March 27, 2023.

This puzzle's 39 possible answers rank it in the 52nd percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on July 26, 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 an 8-letter word for genius.
The last time this happened was on July 23, 2024.

Today's puzzle has an average word length of 5.4.
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 176
  • loll 170
  • toot 159
  • naan 158
  • nana 158
  • lilt 128
  • till 128
  • tilt 128
  • tint 118
  • mama 112
  • mamma 112
  • nene 107
  • acacia 106
  • acai 106
  • anal 105
  • onto 103
  • toon 103
  • anon 101
  • boob 101
  • booboo 101
  • onion 100
  • lull 99
  • lulu 99
  • olio 99
  • papa 97
  • call 96
  • calla 96
  • poop 94
  • allay 93
  • ally 93
  • baba 93
  • dodo 93
  • mitt 93
  • tatty 93
  • ratatat 91
  • tact 91
  • tart 91
  • tartar 91
  • attar 90
  • nanny 90
  • cocci 89
  • mono 89
  • moon 89
  • radar 89
  • tutu 89
  • loon 88
  • array 87
  • epee 87
  • peep 87
  • tattoo 87


How long are words in the Bee?

There have been 88,475 answers ever accepted in the Bee - with 10,168 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*:

  • abaca
  • abaka
  • abba
  • abbe
  • abele
  • alba
  • baal
  • bacca
  • baccae
  • baccala
  • bach
  • backcheck
  • beachball
  • beal
  • bechalk
  • beebee
  • belleek
  • blae
  • bleachable
  • bleb
  • cabbala
  • cabbalah
  • chebec
  • hebe
  • heelball
  • kabab
  • kabaka
  • kabala
  • kabbala
  • keblah
  • labelable
  • labella
  • leachable

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

aback

Etymology 1

adverb
  1. Towards the back or rear; backwards.
  2. In the rear; a distance behind.
  3. By surprise; startled; dumbfounded. (see usage)
  4. Backward against the mast; said of the sails when pressed by the wind from the "wrong" (forward) side, or of a ship when its sails are set that way.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. An abacus.

able

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Easy to use.
  2. Suitable; competent.
  3. Liable to.
  4. Having the necessary powers or the needed resources to accomplish a task.
  5. Free from constraints preventing completion of task; permitted to; not prevented from.
  6. Having the physical strength; robust; healthy.
  7. Rich; well-to-do.
  8. Gifted with skill, intelligence, knowledge, or competence.
  9. Legally qualified or competent.
  10. Capable of performing all the requisite duties; as an able seaman.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To make ready.
  2. To make capable; to enable.
  3. To dress.
  4. To give power to; to reinforce; to confirm.
  5. To vouch for; to guarantee.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. The letter "A" in Navy Phonetic Alphabet.

baba

noun
  1. A kind of sponge cake soaked in rum-flavoured syrup.
  2. (esp. among people of East European ancestry) A grandmother.
  3. An old woman, especially a traditional old woman from an eastern European culture.
  4. (esp. among people of Indian ancestry) A father.
  5. (Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism) A holy man, a spiritual leader.
  6. A baby, child.
  7. In baby talk, often used for a variety of words beginning with b, such as bottle or blanket.

babble

noun
  1. Idle talk; senseless prattle
  2. Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur.
  3. A sound like that of water gently flowing around obstructions.
verb
  1. To utter words indistinctly or unintelligibly; to utter inarticulate sounds
  2. To talk incoherently; to utter meaningless words.
  3. To talk too much; to chatter; to prattle.
  4. To make a continuous murmuring noise, like shallow water running over stones.
  5. To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat words or sounds in a childish way without understanding.
  6. To reveal; to give away (a secret).

babe

noun
  1. A baby or infant; a very young human or animal.
  2. An attractive person, especially a young woman.
  3. Darling (term of endearment).

babel

noun
  1. A confused mixture of sounds and voices, especially in different languages.
  2. A place or scene of noise and confusion.
  3. A tall, looming structure.

babka

No Definition Found.

back

Etymology 1

noun
  1. The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
  2. That which is farthest away from the front.
  3. Upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal's back.
  4. A support or resource in reserve.
  5. The keel and keelson of a ship.
  6. The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
  7. Effort, usually physical.
  8. A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
  9. Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
verb
  1. To go in the reverse direction.
  2. To support.
  3. (of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
  4. (of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
  5. (of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
  6. (of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
  7. To push or force backwards.
  8. To get upon the back of; to mount.
  9. To place or seat upon the back.
  10. To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
  11. To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
  12. To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
  13. (of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
  14. To row backward with (oars).
adjective
  1. Near the rear.
  2. Not current.
  3. Far from the main area.
  4. In arrear; overdue.
  5. Moving or operating backward.
  6. Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
adverb
  1. To or in a previous condition or place.
  2. Away from the front or from an edge.
  3. In a manner that impedes.
  4. In a reciprocal manner; in return.
  5. Earlier, ago.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
  2. A ferryboat.

backache

noun
  1. Any pain or ache in the back.

bake

noun
  1. The act of cooking food by baking.
  2. Any of various baked dishes resembling casserole.
  3. A social event at which food (such as seafood) is baked, or at which baked food is served.
  4. (Barbadian, sometimes US and UK) A small, flat (or ball-shaped) cake of dough eaten in Barbados and sometimes elsewhere, similar in appearance and ingredients to a pancake but fried (or in some places sometimes roasted).
  5. Any item that is baked.
verb
  1. (with person as subject) To cook (something) in an oven.
  2. (with baked thing as subject) To be cooked in an oven.
  3. To be warmed to drying and hardening.
  4. To dry by heat.
  5. To be hot.
  6. To cause to be hot.
  7. To smoke marijuana.
  8. To harden by cold.
  9. To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.
  10. (with "in" or "into") To incorporate into something greater.

bale

Etymology 1

noun
  1. Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
  2. Suffering, woe, torment.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A large fire, a conflagration or bonfire.
  2. A funeral pyre.
  3. A beacon-fire.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A rounded bundle or package of goods in a cloth cover, and corded for storage or transportation.
  2. A bundle of compressed wool or hay, compacted for shipping and handling.
  3. A measurement of hay equal to 10 flakes. Approximately 70-90 lbs (32-41 kg).
  4. A measurement of paper equal to 10 reams.

Etymology 4

verb
  1. To remove water from a boat with buckets etc.

balk

Etymology 1

noun
  1. An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
  2. The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
  3. Beam, crossbeam; squared timber; a tie beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall, especially when laid so as to form a loft, "the balks".
  4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
  5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
  6. An omission.
  7. A deceptive motion; a feint.
  8. The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played.
  9. The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
  10. The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.
verb
  1. To pass over or by.
  2. To omit, miss or overlook by chance.
  3. To miss intentionally; to avoid.
  4. To stop, check, block.
  5. To stop short and refuse to go on.
  6. To refuse suddenly.
  7. To disappoint; to frustrate.
  8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
  9. To leave or make balks in.
  10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.

Etymology 2

verb
  1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

ball

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.
  2. A round or ellipsoidal object.
  3. (mildly, usually in the plural) A testicle.
  4. A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; formerly used by printers for inking the form, then superseded by the roller.
  5. A large pill, a form in which medicine was given to horses; a bolus.
verb
  1. To form or wind into a ball.
  2. To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
  3. To have sexual intercourse with.
  4. To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls.
  5. (usually in present participle) To be hip or cool.
  6. To play basketball.
  7. To punish by affixing a ball and chain
interjection
  1. An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player. This is heard almost any time an opposition player is tackled, without regard to whether the rules about "prior opportunity" to dispose of the ball are fulfilled.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A formal dance.
  2. A very enjoyable time.

beach

noun
  1. The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly.
  2. A horizontal strip of land, usually sandy, adjoining water.
  3. The loose pebbles of the seashore, especially worn by waves; shingle.
verb
  1. To run aground on a beach.
  2. To run (something) aground on a beach.
  3. (of a vehicle) To run into an obstacle or rough or soft ground, so that the floor of the vehicle rests on the ground and the wheels cannot gain traction.
noun
  1. A gravel-filled zone on a racetrack, used as a hazard, exclusionary region, and, safety device to slow down and trap vehicles.

beak

noun
  1. Anatomical uses.
  2. Figurative uses.
  3. Colloquial uses.
verb
  1. Strike with the beak.
  2. Seize with the beak.
  3. To play truant.

beck

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A stream or small river.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
verb
  1. To nod or motion with the head.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. A vat.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. Anatomical uses.
  2. Figurative uses.
  3. Colloquial uses.

beech

noun
  1. A tree of the genus Fagus having a smooth, light grey trunk, oval, pointed leaves and many branches.
  2. The wood of the beech tree.

belch

noun
  1. The sound one makes when belching.
  2. Malt liquor.
verb
  1. To expel (gas) loudly from the stomach through the mouth.
  2. To eject or emit (something) with spasmodic force or noise.
  3. To be ejected or emitted (from something) with spasmodic force or noise.

bell

Etymology 1

noun
  1. A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
  2. The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  3. A telephone call.
  4. A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  5. The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  6. Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
  7. The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  8. A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.).
  9. Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  10. The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
  11. An instrument situated on a bicycle's handlebar, used by the cyclist to warn of his or her presence.
verb
  1. To attach a bell to.
  2. To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
  3. To telephone.
  4. To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
verb
  1. To bellow or roar.
  2. To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

belle

noun
  1. An attractive woman.

blab

noun
  1. One who blabs; a babbler; a telltale; a gossip or gossiper.
  2. Gossip; prattle.
verb
  1. To tell tales; to gossip without reserve or discretion.

black

noun
  1. The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
  2. A black dye or pigment.
  3. A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
  4. (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
  5. (sometimes capitalised) A person of African, Aborigine, or Maori descent; a dark-skinned person.
  6. Blackness, the condition of having dark skin.
  7. The black ball.
  8. The edge of home plate.
  9. A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
  10. Blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
  11. (in chess and similar games) The person playing with the black set of pieces.
  12. Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
  13. A stain; a spot.
  14. A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
  15. Marijuana.
verb
  1. To make black; to blacken.
  2. To apply blacking to (something).
  3. To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
adjective
  1. (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
  2. (of a place, etc) Without light.
  3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
  4. Designated for use by those ethnic groups which have dark pigmentation of the skin.
  5. (of a card) Of the spades or clubs suits. Compare red
  6. Bad; evil; ill-omened.
  7. Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
  8. (of objects, markets, etc) Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
  9. Overcrowded.
  10. (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk or creamer.
  11. Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess the set used by the player who moves second) (often regardless of the pieces' actual colour).
  12. Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color. Compare white.
  13. Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
  14. Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.
  15. Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
  16. Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic
  17. Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc) that is dark (or black); in taxonomy, especially: dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.
  18. Foul; dirty.

blackball

noun
  1. A rejection; a vote against admitting someone.
  2. A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote.
  3. A kind of large black sweet; a niggerball.
  4. A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work.
verb
  1. To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization.
  2. To ostracize.

blah

noun
  1. Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
  2. (in plural, the blahs) A general or ambiguous feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, uneasiness, boredom, mild depression, etc.
verb
  1. To utter idle, meaningless talk.
adjective
  1. Dull; uninteresting; insipid.
  2. Low in spirit or health; down.
interjection
  1. An expression of mild frustration.
  2. (When spoken repeatedly, often three times in succession: blah blah blah!) Imitative of idle, meaningless talk; used sometimes in a slightly derogatory manner to mock or downplay another's words, or to show disinterest in a diatribe, rant, instructions, unsolicited advice, parenting, etc. Also used when recalling and retelling another's words, as a substitute for the portions of the speech deemed irrelevant.
  3. Representing the sound of vomiting.

bleach

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Pale; bleak.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
  2. A variety of bleach.
verb
  1. To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
  2. To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
  3. (of corals) to lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
  4. To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.

Etymology 3

noun
  1. An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.

Etymology 4

noun
  1. A disease of the skin.

bleak

Etymology 1

adjective
  1. Without color; pale; pallid.
  2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
  3. Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.

blech

Etymology 1

verb
  1. To have the vomiting reflex triggered.
interjection
  1. An imitation of the sound of gagging, used to express disgust or disdain.

Etymology 2

noun
  1. A metal sheet used to cover stovetop burners on Shabbat to allow food to be kept warm without violating the prohibition against cooking.

cabal

noun
  1. # A putative, secret organization of individuals gathered for a political purpose.
  2. A secret plot.
  3. An identifiable group within the tradition of Discordianism.
verb
  1. To engage in the activities of a cabal.

cabala

proper noun
  1. A body of mystical Jewish teachings based on an esoteric reading of the Hebrew scriptures.

cable

noun
  1. (material) A long object used to make a physical connection.
  2. (communications) A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
  3. A telegram, notably when sent by (submarine) telegraph cable.
  4. A unit of length equal to one tenth of a nautical mile.
  5. (unit, chiefly nautical) 100 fathoms, 600 imperial feet, approximately 185 m.
  6. The currency pair British Pound against United States Dollar.
  7. A moulding, shaft of a column, or any other member of convex, rounded section, made to resemble the spiral twist of a rope.
  8. A textural pattern achieved by passing groups of stitches over one another.
verb
  1. To provide with cable(s)
  2. To fasten (as if) with cable(s)
  3. To wrap wires to form a cable
  4. To send a telegram by cable
  5. To communicate by cable
  6. To ornament with cabling.
  7. To create cable stitches.

callable

noun
  1. An object of a type that can be called, such as a function.
  2. A callable bond.
adjective
  1. That can be called.
  2. That may be redeemed by its holder before it matures.

callback

noun
  1. The return of a situation to a previous position or state.
  2. A return telephone or radio call; especially one made automatically to authenticate a logon to a computer network.
  3. A product recall because of a defect or safety concern.
  4. A function pointer passed as an argument to another function.
  5. A follow-up audition (casting)
  6. A joke which references an earlier joke in the same routine

celeb

noun
  1. A celebrity; a famous person.

checkable

No Definition Found.

hackable

adjective
  1. That can be hacked or broken into; insecure, vulnerable.
  2. That lends itself to hacking (technical tinkering and modification); moddable.

healable

No Definition Found.

kabbalah

noun
  1. Alternative spelling of Kabballah

kebab

noun
  1. A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted on a skewer or spit, especially a doner kebab.
  2. A shish kebab or any other food on a skewer.
  3. The outward growing portions of a shish kebab structure.
  4. A Muslim, usually of southern European, Middle Eastern, or North African descent.
  5. The vulva.
verb
  1. To roast in the style of a kebab
  2. To stab or skewer

label

noun
  1. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
  2. A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
  3. A company that sells records.
  4. A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
  5. A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
  6. A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
  7. A tassel.
  8. A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
  9. A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
  10. The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
  11. In mediaeval art, the representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
  12. A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.
verb
  1. To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
  2. (ditransitive) To give a label to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.
  3. To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
  4. To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro