Well-worn pencil

The answer

NUB

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

Used 13 times across 11 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 2000. It appears in 7 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.

• STUB (3 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
• Heart - used 10 times, most recently in 2022
• Heart of the matter - used 9 times, most recently in 2026
• 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.

• As well - TOO, used 300 times
• "Well, ___-di-dah!" - LAH, used 242 times
• Not well - ILL, used 100 times
• Well-put - APT, used 85 times
• Well-suited - APT, used 73 times
• "Well, well, well!" - OHO, used 66 times

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