NYT Spelling Bee Answers for January 17, 2025
Game Summary
| Center Letter | N |
|---|---|
| Outer Letters | c, e, f, i, l, t |
| # of Pangrams | 1 (Perfect: 1) |
| Total Words | 54 words |
| Total Points | 279 points |
| Genius Level | 195 points |
| Bingo? | Yes |
Table of Contents
As you scroll down this page, the clues get progressively more revealing. So scroll slowly!
- Spelling Bee Grid
- Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
- Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
- Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing) 🤯
- Today's Complete Solution
- Answer Definitions
If you're just here for a list of NYT Spelling Bee answers, Jump down to the answers ↓ (Spoiler Alert!).
Spelling Bee Grid
The following table shows the standard Spelling Bee summary grid, which lists word lengths across the top and letters down the left-hand side. The cell where the word lengths and letters intersect displays the number of words in today's puzzle with the corresponding first letter and word length.
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Σ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 1 | - | 2 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 4 |
| E | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | - | - | 5 |
| F | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 8 |
| I | - | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 13 |
| L | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | 11 |
| N | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | 7 |
| T | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6 | Σ | 14 | 11 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | - | 1 | 54 |
Two-Letter List (2LL) Hints
The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding two letters.
| C | CE×1 CL×3 |
|---|---|
| E | EF×1 EL×1 EN×3 |
| F | FE×4 FI×3 FL×1 |
| I | IN×13 |
| L | LE×4 LI×7 |
| N | NE×2 NI×5 |
| T | TE×3 TI×3 |
Three-Letter List (3LL) Hints
The following list shows the number of solution words that begin with the corresponding three letters.
| C | CEN×1 CLI×3 |
|---|---|
| E | EFF×1 ELF×1 ENT×3 |
| F | FEI×1 FEL×1 FEN×2 FIF×1 FIN×2 FLI×1 |
| I | INC×2 INE×1 INF×5 INL×1 INN×1 INT×3 |
| L | LEN×4 LIE×1 LIF×1 LIN×5 |
| N | NEN×1 NET×1 NIC×1 NIE×1 NIN×2 NIT×1 |
| T | TEE×1 TEN×2 TIN×3 |
Extra Letter Hints (Incrementally Revealing)
The table below lists all of the solutions to today's puzzle, but they're concealed. You can click the plus button (+) to reveal additional letters, one-by-one.
Concealed definitions are provided as additional clues. You can toggle concealment of the definitions by clicking on the concealer bar or the text that appears when the definition is visible.
Pangrams are marked with a dagger symbol (†).
| Word | 2L Ref | Definition (click to reveal) |
|---|---|---|
| in..... † | IN7 | To cause to curve inwards. |
| ce.. | CE4 | A subunit of currency equal to one-hundredth of the main unit of currency in many countries. Symbol: ¢. |
| cl.... | CL6 | A customer, a buyer or receiver of goods or services. |
| cl....... | CL9 | The body or class of people who frequent an establishment or purchase a service, especially when considered as forming a more-or-less homogeneous group of clients in terms of values or habits. |
| cl.... | CL6 | A medical facility, such as a hospital, especially one for the treatment and diagnosis of outpatients. |
| ef....... | EF9 | making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy |
| el... | EL5 | An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land. |
| en..... | EN7 | An informal alliance or friendly understanding between two states. |
| en.... | EN6 | To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope. |
| en..... | EN7 | To give a title to. (Can we add an example for this sense?) |
| fe... | FE5 | To make a feint, or mock attack. |
| fe.... | FE6 | Of or pertaining to cats. |
| fe... | FE5 | A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc. |
| fe.... | FE6 | A plant, Foeniculum vulgare, of the parsley family, which has a sweet, anise-like flavor. |
| fi..... | FI7 | The cardinal number occurring after fourteen (14) and before sixteen (16). |
| fi.. | FI4 | Senses referring to subjective quality. Of superior quality. |
| fi.... | FI6 | Having an end or limit; constrained by bounds; whose number of elements is a natural number. |
| fl... | FL5 | A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air. |
| in.... | IN6 | To stir up or excite; to rouse or goad into action. |
| in..... | IN7 | To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical. |
| in......... | IN11 | Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious |
| in.... | IN6 | To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a pathogen) to come into contact with (a body or body part) and begin to act on it. |
| in.... | IN6 | To fill in a space, hole or gap. |
| in...... | IN8 | Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense. |
| in..... | IN7 | To thrust upon; to impose. |
| in... | IN5 | To let in; admit. |
| in... | IN5 | A navel that is formed of a hollow in the abdomen (as opposed to one that protrudes from the abdomen). |
| in... | IN5 | intelligence (secret information) |
| in....... | IN9 | The faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty. |
| in.... | IN6 | Something that is intended. |
| le...... | LE8 | Leniency: mercy or forgiveness in the assignment of punishment. |
| le..... | LE7 | Lax; not strict; tolerant of dissent or deviation |
| le.. | LE4 | Alternative letter-case form of Lent |
| le.... | LE6 | Any of several plants of the genus Lens, especially Lens culinaris, from southwest Asia, that have edible, lens-shaped seeds within flattened pods. |
| li.. | LI4 | A tendon. |
| li...... | LI8 | A line to which a drowning or falling victim may cling. |
| li.. | LI4 | A path through two or more points (compare ‘segment’); a continuous mark, including as made by a pen; any path, curved or straight. |
| li... | LI5 | Thread or cloth made from flax fiber. |
| li.... | LI6 | A small passerine bird, the common linnet (Linaria cannabina, syn. Carduelis cannabina), in the finch family Fringillidae, native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa. |
| li.. | LI4 | Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc. |
| li.... | LI6 | A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above. |
| ne.. | NE4 | The Hawaiian goose, Branta sandvicensis, which was designated the state bird of Hawaii in 1957. |
| ne.... | NE6 | Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash. Especially, most species of herb genus Urtica, the stinging nettles: Most, but not all, subspecies of Urtica dioica (common nettle), Urtica incisa (Australian nettle); Wood nettle (Laportea canadensis); Bull nettles and spurge nettles of genus Cnidoscolus: Cnidoscolus stimulosus, bull nettle, spurge nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus, Texas bull nettle, Cnidoscolus urens, bull nettle, Nettle trees or tree nettles: Various species of the genus Dendrocnide: Urera baccifera (scratchbush), Urtica ferox (tree nettle); rock nettle (Eucnide); small-leaved nettle (Dendrocnide photinophylla). |
| ni.. | NI4 | Pleasant, satisfactory. |
| ni... | NI5 | A daughter of one’s sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either the daughter of one's brother ("fraternal niece"), or of one's sister ("sororal niece"). |
| ni.. | NI4 | NATO & ICAO phonetic alphabet code for the numeral 9. |
| ni...... | NI8 | The cardinal number occurring after eighteen and before twenty, represented in Roman numerals as XIX and in Arabic numerals as 19. It is the last/largest of the "teens". |
| ni.. | NI4 | Informal spelling of night. |
| te.. | TE4 | Synonym of teenager: a person between 13 and 19 years old. |
| te... | TE5 | An opinion, belief, or principle that is held as absolute truth by someone or especially an organization. |
| te.. | TE4 | A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather. |
| ti... | TI5 | A tint or colour. |
| ti.. | TI4 | A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb. |
| ti.. | TI4 | A slight coloring. |
Today's Complete Solution
The words that follow are a complete listing of all acceptable words in today's New York Time Spelling Bee puzzle.
Next to the answer word you'll see the two-letter reference (2L Ref) in parentheses. We added that 2L Ref for easier translation of the spoiler-avoidant language you see on the Spelling Bee Forum and Twitter. The 2L Ref signifies a word's two start letters followed by the total number of letters in the word.
- inflect† (IN7)
- cent (CE4)
- client (CL6)
- clientele (CL9)
- clinic (CL6)
- efficient (EF9)
- elfin (EL5)
- entente (EN7)
- entice (EN6)
- entitle (EN7)
- feint (FE5)
- feline (FE6)
- fence (FE5)
- fennel (FE6)
- fifteen (FI7)
- fine (FI4)
- finite (FI6)
- flint (FL5)
- incite (IN6)
- incline (IN7)
- inefficient (IN11)
- infect (IN6)
- infill (IN6)
- infinite (IN8)
- inflict (IN7)
- inlet (IN5)
- innie (IN5)
- intel (IN5)
- intellect (IN9)
- intent (IN6)
- lenience (LE8)
- lenient (LE7)
- lent (LE4)
- lentil (LE6)
- lien (LI4)
- lifeline (LI8)
- line (LI4)
- linen (LI5)
- linnet (LI6)
- lint (LI4)
- lintel (LI6)
- nene (NE4)
- nettle (NE6)
- nice (NI4)
- niece (NI5)
- nine (NI4)
- nineteen (NI8)
- nite (NI4)
- teen (TE4)
- tenet (TE5)
- tent (TE4)
- tinct (TI5)
- tine (TI4)
- tint (TI4)
Answer Definitions
- inflect† (verb): To cause to curve inwards.
- cent (noun): A subunit of currency equal to one-hundredth of the main unit of currency in many countries. Symbol: ¢.
- client (noun): A customer, a buyer or receiver of goods or services.
- clientele (noun): The body or class of people who frequent an establishment or purchase a service, especially when considered as forming a more-or-less homogeneous group of clients in terms of values or habits.
- clinic (noun): A medical facility, such as a hospital, especially one for the treatment and diagnosis of outpatients.
- efficient (adjective): making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy
- elfin (noun): An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.
- entente (noun): An informal alliance or friendly understanding between two states.
- entice (verb): To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope.
- entitle (verb): To give a title to. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- feint (verb): To make a feint, or mock attack.
- feline (adjective): Of or pertaining to cats.
- fence (noun): A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
- fennel (noun): A plant, Foeniculum vulgare, of the parsley family, which has a sweet, anise-like flavor.
- fifteen (numeral): The cardinal number occurring after fourteen (14) and before sixteen (16).
- fine (adjective): Senses referring to subjective quality. Of superior quality.
- finite (adjective): Having an end or limit; constrained by bounds; whose number of elements is a natural number.
- flint (noun): A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.
- incite (verb): To stir up or excite; to rouse or goad into action.
- incline (verb): To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical.
- inefficient (adjective): Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious
- infect (verb): To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a pathogen) to come into contact with (a body or body part) and begin to act on it.
- infill (verb): To fill in a space, hole or gap.
- infinite (adjective): Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense.
- inflict (verb): To thrust upon; to impose.
- inlet (verb): To let in; admit.
- innie (noun): A navel that is formed of a hollow in the abdomen (as opposed to one that protrudes from the abdomen).
- intel (noun): intelligence (secret information)
- intellect (noun): The faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty.
- intent (noun): Something that is intended.
- lenience (noun): Leniency: mercy or forgiveness in the assignment of punishment.
- lenient (adjective): Lax; not strict; tolerant of dissent or deviation
- lent (noun): Alternative letter-case form of Lent
- lentil (noun): Any of several plants of the genus Lens, especially Lens culinaris, from southwest Asia, that have edible, lens-shaped seeds within flattened pods.
- lien (noun): A tendon.
- lifeline (noun): A line to which a drowning or falling victim may cling.
- line (noun): A path through two or more points (compare ‘segment’); a continuous mark, including as made by a pen; any path, curved or straight.
- linen (noun): Thread or cloth made from flax fiber.
- linnet (noun): A small passerine bird, the common linnet (Linaria cannabina, syn. Carduelis cannabina), in the finch family Fringillidae, native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa.
- lint (noun): Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc.
- lintel (noun): A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above.
- nene (noun): The Hawaiian goose, Branta sandvicensis, which was designated the state bird of Hawaii in 1957.
- nettle (noun): Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash. Especially, most species of herb genus Urtica, the stinging nettles: Most, but not all, subspecies of Urtica dioica (common nettle), Urtica incisa (Australian nettle); Wood nettle (Laportea canadensis); Bull nettles and spurge nettles of genus Cnidoscolus: Cnidoscolus stimulosus, bull nettle, spurge nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus, Texas bull nettle, Cnidoscolus urens, bull nettle, Nettle trees or tree nettles: Various species of the genus Dendrocnide: Urera baccifera (scratchbush), Urtica ferox (tree nettle); rock nettle (Eucnide); small-leaved nettle (Dendrocnide photinophylla).
- nice (adjective): Pleasant, satisfactory.
- niece (noun): A daughter of one’s sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either the daughter of one's brother ("fraternal niece"), or of one's sister ("sororal niece").
- nine (numeral): NATO & ICAO phonetic alphabet code for the numeral 9.
- nineteen (numeral): The cardinal number occurring after eighteen and before twenty, represented in Roman numerals as XIX and in Arabic numerals as 19. It is the last/largest of the "teens".
- nite (noun): Informal spelling of night.
- teen (noun): Synonym of teenager: a person between 13 and 19 years old.
- tenet (noun): An opinion, belief, or principle that is held as absolute truth by someone or especially an organization.
- tent (noun): A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.
- tinct (noun): A tint or colour.
- tine (noun): A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb.
- tint (noun): A slight coloring.