- Letters: A/BDFLOR
- Words: 53
- Points: 202
- Pangrams: 1
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The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A | Train conductor cry: “All …!” (“Get on now!”) |
| 2 | 1 | A | Overseas (travel …) |
| 3 | 1 | A | Filipino stew or Mexican seasoning |
| 4 | 1 | A | Have enough money to pay for something |
| 5 | 1 | A | Jackson 5 hairstyle |
| 6 | 1 | A | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 7 | 1 | A | Cool & distant in behavior, adj.; anagram of bath sponge |
| 8 | 1 | A | Tree garden; its “Day” is the last Friday in April in many places |
| 9 | 1 | A | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 32 | 1 | A | Distant |
| 10 | 1 | B | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 11 | 1 | B | Head with no hair, or tire with no tread |
| 12 | 1 | B | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb/noun |
| 13 | 1 | B | Narrative song; or a slow sentimental or romantic song |
| 14 | 1 | B | African tree |
| 15 | 1 | B | Sharp projection near end of fishhook or on top of wire fence; start of Streisand name |
| 16 | 1 | B | Archaic term for “poet”; Shakespeare’s “… of Avon” nickname |
| 17 | 1 | B | Throw up (slang) |
| 18 | 1 | B | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 19 | 1 | B | Wild pig |
| 20 | 1 | B | Plank of wood, noun; or get on a vehicle, verb |
| 21 | 1 | B | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 22 | 1 | B | Thrown weighted string weapon |
| 23 | 1 | B | Short, thick post for mooring or protection |
| 24 | 1 | B | Small nail, or Janet's hubby in “Rocky Horror” |
| 25 | 1 | B | Wide, or slang term for ♀, adj., adv. form is a pangram |
| 26 | 1 | D | US currency |
| 27 | 1 | D | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 28 | 1 | D | Mahimahi; or South American freshwater fish with a golden body and red fins |
| 29 | 1 | D | Dull, lacking brightness or interest, adj. |
| 30 | 1 | F | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 31 | 1 | F | Statistical decrease, or result of slipping while on a ladder; compound |
| 33 | 1 | F | Unit of electrical capacitance |
| 34 | 1 | F | Ancient grain used in salad & soup, not King Tut |
| 35 | 1 | F | Soft, loose flesh on a person’s body; fat |
| 36 | 1 | F | Bottom of a car interior, or wood plank in your home that you walk on; compound pangram |
| 37 | 1 | F | Plants of a particular region (… & fauna) |
| 38 | 1 | F | Involving flowers |
| 39 | 1 | F | Baby horse or other equine, noun/verb |
| 40 | 1 | F | Meeting place (Roman …, online discussion …) |
| 41 | 1 | L | Hard work (manual…), or UK political party of Tony Blair (they add a U) |
| 42 | 1 | L | Pig fat for cooking |
| 43 | 1 | L | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 44 | 1 | L | Unit of bread, noun; or idle (… around), verb |
| 45 | 1 | L | Bath sponge |
| 46 | 1 | O | Weirdo (or pool table orb with a non-even number); compound |
| 47 | 1 | O | Entrails & organs used as food |
| 48 | 1 | O | Empty a truck, or get rid of something unwanted |
| 49 | 1 | O | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 50 | 1 | R | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 51 | 1 | R | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 52 | 1 | R | Lion “shout” |
| 53 | 1 | R | Vehicle roof rod to protect against overturning, compound |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on social media.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout