NYT Dictionary

LIGNAN

NounLIG-nanlig-nan · 2 syllablesAdvanced/Professional

Accepted in official NYT Spelling Bee puzzle years: 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Meaning

Any of a class of phenylpropanoid (propylbenzene) type of molecules found in essentially all plants, generally dimeric or higher order, and produced by secondary metabolic pathways branching off of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis, in some cases having associated antioxidant or estrogenic (phytoestrogenic) activities; having in common with lignin the phenylpropanoid monomers, where lignin is a random oxidative polymerization of the same

NYT Puzzle Appearances

No published puzzle dates on file for this word yet. It is part of the official NYT Spelling Bee word list for 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.

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