Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Pangrams highlighted. Click a word for its definition.

• abate5

  abate

  verb — To moderate; to lessen in force, intensity, to subside.

  verb — To decrease in intensity or force; to subside.

  verb — To reduce in amount, size, or value.

  verb — To decrease in size, value, or amount.

  verb — To humble; to lower in status; to bring someone down physically or mentally.

  verb — (obsolete outside law) To put an end to; to cause to cease.

  Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

• abet1

  abet

  verb — To incite; to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime.

  verb — To support, countenance, maintain, uphold, or aid (any good cause, opinion, or action); to maintain.

  verb — To urge on, stimulate (a person to do) something desirable.

  noun — An act of abetting; of helping; of giving aid.

  verb — To back up one's forecast of a doubtful issue, by staking money, etc., to bet.

  noun — Fraud or cunning.

  Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

• acetate7

  acetate

  noun — Any salt or ester of acetic acid.

  noun — Cellulose acetate.

  noun — A transparent sheet used for overlays.

  noun — Ellipsis of acetate disc: a disc of aluminium covered in a wax used to make demonstration copies of a phonograph record.

  Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

• acetic6

  acetic

  adjective — Of, pertaining to, or producing vinegar

  adjective — Of or pertaining to acetic acid or its derivatives

  Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

• attack6

  attack

  noun — An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.

  verb — To apply violent force to someone or something.

  noun — An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.

  noun — A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.

  noun — (by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.

  noun — An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.

  Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

• attic5

  attic

  noun — The space, often unfinished and with sloped walls, directly below the roof in the uppermost part of a house or other building, generally used for storage or habitation.

  Appeared in 17 recorded puzzles.

• backbit7

  backbit

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• backbite15

  backbite

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• bait1

  bait

  noun — Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.

  noun — Anything which allures; something used to lure or entice someone or something into doing something

  verb — To attract with bait; to entice.

  verb — To intentionally annoy, torment, or threaten by constant rebukes or threats; to harass.

  noun — Food containing poison or a harmful additive to kill animals that are pests.

  verb — To affix bait to a trap or a fishing hook or fishing line.

  Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

• bate1

  bate

  verb — To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do better than, outdo, or excel (someone) in a particular, competitive event.

  verb — To hit; strike

  verb — To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.

  verb — To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.

  verb — To move with pulsation or throbbing.

  verb — To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.

  Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

• batik5

  batik

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• beat1

  beat

  verb — To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do better than, outdo, or excel (someone) in a particular, competitive event.

  verb — To hit; strike

  verb — To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.

  noun — A pulsation or throb.

  noun — A rhythm.

  adjective — Exhausted

  Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

• beet1

  beet

  noun — A beetroot, a swollen root of such a plant.

  noun — Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar.

  verb — To improve; to mend.

  verb — To kindle a fire.

  verb — To rouse.

  Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

• beta1

  beta

  noun — The second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ, γ). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase.

  noun — The phase of development after alpha testing and before launch, in which software, while not complete, has been released to potential users for testing.

  noun — Software in such a phase; a preliminary version.

  noun — Average sensitivity of a security's price to overall securities market prices.

  noun — Used in marking scheme: α, β, γ or α+, α, α-, β etc.

  adjective — Preliminary; prerelease. Refers to an incomplete version of a product released for initial testing.

  Appeared in 5 recorded puzzles.

• betake6

  betake

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• bite1

  bite

  verb — To cut into something by clamping the teeth.

  noun — The act of biting.

  noun — The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.

  noun — A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.

  verb — To attack with the teeth.

  verb — (of an insect) To sting.

  Appeared in 6 recorded puzzles.

• cacti5

  cacti

  noun — Any member of the family Cactaceae, a family of flowering New World succulent plants suited to a hot, semi-desert climate.

  noun — Any succulent plant with a thick fleshy stem bearing spines but no leaves, such as euphorbs.

  Appeared in 17 recorded puzzles.

• ciabatta8

  ciabatta

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

• cite1

  cite

  verb — To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another.

  noun — A citation

  verb — To list the source(s) from which one took information, words or literary or verbal context.

  verb — To summon officially or authoritatively to appear in court.

  Appeared in 13 recorded puzzles.

• kite1

  kite

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

• tacet5

  tacet

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 8 recorded puzzles.

• tacit5

  tacit

  adjective — Expressed in silence; implied, but not made explicit; silent.

  adjective — Not derived from formal principles of reasoning; based on induction rather than deduction.

  Appeared in 17 recorded puzzles.

• tack1

  tack

  noun — A small nail with a flat head.

  verb — To nail with a tack (small nail with a flat head).

  noun — A stain; a tache.

  noun — That which is tacky; something cheap and gaudy.

  noun — A thumbtack.

  noun — A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.

  Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

• tact1

  tact

  noun — The sense of touch; feeling.

  verb — To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant; see noun sense).

  noun — A maneuver, or action calculated to achieve some end.

  noun — The stroke in beating time.

  noun — Sensitive mental touch; special skill or faculty; keen perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances; the ability to say the right thing.

  noun — A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).

  Appeared in 20 recorded puzzles.

• tactic6

  tactic

  noun — A maneuver, or action calculated to achieve some end.

  adjective — Tactical; of or relating to the art of military and naval tactics.

  noun — A maneuver used against an enemy.

  noun — A sequence of moves that limits the opponent's options and results in an immediate and tangible advantage, typically in the form of material.

  adjective — Describing a polymer whose repeat units are identical.

  Appeared in 17 recorded puzzles.

• take1

  take

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• takeback8

  takeback

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• teacake7

  teacake

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• teak1

  teak

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• teat1

  teat

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 10 recorded puzzles.

• tibia5

  tibia

  noun — The inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone

  noun — The second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.

  noun — The third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.

  noun — A musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.

  Appeared in 12 recorded puzzles.

• tibiae6

  tibiae

  noun — The inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone

  noun — The second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.

  noun — The third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.

  noun — A musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.

  Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

• tick1

  tick

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 2 recorded puzzles.

• ticket6

  ticket

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• tieback14

  tieback

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

• tiki1

  tiki

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 4 recorded puzzles.

• tikka5

  tikka

  No cached definition. Look it up on Wiktionary.

  Appeared in 3 recorded puzzles.

tieback is a perfect pangram — all seven letters, each used exactly once.