Bete noire
The crossword clue "Bete noire" is answered by BANE, a 4-letter entry. Used 7 times across 7 distinct years; most recently in 2021; first recorded in 2000. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Every figure on this page comes from the collection data itself, never from a guess.
The answer
BANE
4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the BANE answer page.
Used 7 times across 7 distinct years; most recently in 2021; first recorded in 2000. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.
Other answers for this clue
The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.
- BUGABOO (3 uses in xd)
Other clues for BANE
Every other clue in this collection answered by BANE, most used first.
- Curse - used 57 times, most recently in 2026
- Scourge - used 55 times, most recently in 2025
- Ruination - used 48 times, most recently in 2025
- Cause of ruin - used 43 times, most recently in 2026
- Poison - used 31 times, most recently in 2014
- Nemesis - used 28 times, most recently in 2025
- Thorn in one's side - used 27 times, most recently in 2025
- Source of misery - used 24 times, most recently in 2023
- Source of ruin - used 22 times, most recently in 2026
- Spoiler - used 20 times, most recently in 2023
- Downfall - used 18 times, most recently in 2025
- Ruin - used 18 times, most recently in 2010
- Cause of distress - used 16 times, most recently in 2023
- Deadly poison - used 15 times, most recently in 2013
- ___ of one's existence - used 15 times, most recently in 2025
- "The Dark Knight Rises" villain - used 15 times, most recently in 2025
- Cause of harm - used 14 times, most recently in 2020
- Cause of misery - used 14 times, most recently in 2022
- The ___ of my existence - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
- Undoing - used 10 times, most recently in 2020
- Bugaboo - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
- Source of harm - used 9 times, most recently in 2024
- The ___ of one's existence - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
- Harmful thing - used 7 times, most recently in 1980
- Ruinous agent - used 7 times, most recently in 2013
- Cause of one's undoing - used 6 times, most recently in 2013
- "It's the ___ of my existence" - used 6 times, most recently in 2026
Related clues
Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.
- ___ noire - BETE, used 171 times
- ___ noire (bugbear) - BETE, used 19 times
- ___ noire (bane) - BETE, used 10 times
- ___ noire (fearsome entity) - BETE, used 6 times
- ___ noire (pet peeve) - BETE, used 6 times
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