Saturday, January 4, 2020

Answers to yesterday's bee


The official answers for today's puzzle are:

  • alack
  • allow
  • balk
  • ball
  • bawl
  • blab
  • black
  • blackball
  • blob
  • bloc
  • block
  • blow
  • blowback
  • bola
  • boll
  • bolo
  • bowl
  • cabal
  • cabala
  • call
  • calla
  • callaloo
  • callback
  • callow
  • clack
  • claw
  • cloaca
  • cloak
  • clock
  • coal
  • cola
  • cool
  • cowl
  • koala
  • kola
  • lack
  • lawbook
  • lobo
  • local
  • lock
  • loco
  • loll
  • look
  • lowball
  • walk
  • wall
  • wallow
  • wool


Number of Pangrams: 1

Maximum Puzzle Score: 160

Number of Answers: 48

Points Needed for Genius: 112

Genius requires between 17 and 43 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 77% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 67% of the remaining points to reach genius.



How does this puzzle compare to other puzzles?

Today's score of 160 was the in the 61st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there was a score this high was on December 26, 2019.
The highest score ever was 444 on April 6, 2019.
The lowest score ever was 50 on May 17, 2019.

This puzzle's 48 possible answers rank it in the 81st percentile of all puzzles.
The last time there were more answers than this was on December 19, 2019.
The highest number of answers was 81 on June 8, 2019.
The lowest number of answers was 21 on August 5, 2018.

It takes a 7-letter word for genius. This is pretty common.



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

  • loll 53
  • toot 49
  • naan 46
  • nana 46
  • noon 44
  • array 37
  • ratatat 37
  • tart 37
  • tartar 37
  • attar 36
  • call 36
  • calla 36
  • tatty 35
  • allay 34
  • ally 34
  • anal 33
  • lilt 33
  • root 33
  • roto 33
  • rotor 33
  • till 33
  • tilt 33
  • toro 33
  • tort 33
  • trot 33
  • poop 32
  • loot 31
  • lotto 31
  • nanny 31
  • natant 31
  • toll 31
  • tool 31
  • tint 30
  • onto 29
  • radar 29
  • toon 29
  • coot 28
  • mono 28
  • moon 28
  • baba 27
  • itty 27
  • nene 26
  • tact 26
  • tall 26
  • ball 25
  • blab 25
  • illy 25
  • lily 25
  • loon 25
  • lull 25


Valid dictionary words not in today's official answers

You may be wondering why these words aren't here*:

  • abolla
  • alba
  • alcool
  • alow
  • awol
  • baal
  • babool
  • bacalao
  • baccala
  • backblock
  • baklawa
  • balboa
  • ballcock
  • blackcock
  • blaw
  • blowball
  • cabbala
  • calk
  • calo
  • clawback
  • cloacal
  • coala
  • coccal
  • cocobola
  • cocobolo
  • kabala
  • kabbala
  • kolo
  • lall
  • loca
  • obol
  • olla
  • walla
  • wawl

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