Heart of the matter

The answer

NUB

3 letters. See every clue for this answer on the NUB answer page.

Used 9 times across 9 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 1955. 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.

• GIST (54 uses in xd)
• CRUX (31 uses in xd)
• PITH (19 uses in xd)
• CORE (10 uses in xd)
• MEAT (10 uses in xd)

Other clues for NUB

Every other clue in this collection answered by NUB, most used first.

• Gist - used 93 times, most recently in 2026
• Essence - used 30 times, most recently in 2025
• Worn-down pencil - used 28 times, most recently in 2026
• Central point - used 25 times, most recently in 2026
• Pencil stump - used 17 times, most recently in 2024
• Crux - used 15 times, most recently in 2021
• Well-used pencil - used 13 times, most recently in 2026
• Well-worn pencil - used 13 times, most recently in 2026
• Heart - used 10 times, most recently in 2022
• Small lump - used 8 times, most recently in 2026
• Small protuberance - used 8 times, most recently in 2026
• Core - used 6 times, most recently in 2014
• Very short pencil - used 6 times, most recently in 2025

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.

• In the past - AGO, used 1,064 times
• In the style of - ALA, used 784 times
• Under the weather - ILL, used 536 times
• "___ the season ..." - TIS, used 398 times
• To the ___ degree - NTH, used 389 times
• In the manner of - ALA, used 367 times

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