- Letters: B/ADGILN
- Words: 55
- Points: 329
- Pangrams: 3
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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.
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 | Accept or act in accordance with a decision or law; or tolerate something; or continue without fading (…ing love) |
| 2 | 1 | A | Criminal’s excuse |
| 3 | 1 | B | Sound a sheep makes, noun/verb |
| 4 | 1 | B | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 5 | 1 | B | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 6 | 1 | B | Emblem worn as a mark of office, membership, or employment, noun/verb |
| 7 | 1 | B | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 8 | 2 | B | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 9 | 2 | B | Head with no hair, or tire with no tread |
| 10 | 1 | B | Parcel of hay, noun/verb, or actor Christian |
| 11 | 2 | B | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb/noun |
| 12 | 1 | B | Narrative song; or a slow sentimental or romantic song |
| 13 | 1 | B | Prohibit, verb |
| 14 | 1 | B | Unoriginal, dull, noun form is a pangram |
| 15 | 1 | B | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 16 | 2 | B | Musical group, noun; or loop (as in “wedding” & “arm”), noun; or form a group, verb (… together) |
| 17 | 1 | B | Strip of material used to protect a wound or injured part of the body, noun/verb |
| 18 | 2 | B | Mask or headscarf, 2 spellings |
| 19 | 2 | B | Sound of a collision, noun (“The Big … Theory”) |
| 20 | 1 | B | Offer to pay a price at an auction |
| 21 | 1 | B | Remain or stay somewhere, archaic verb (you must go and I must …) |
| 22 | 2 | B | Invoice, or actor Murray, noun/verb |
| 23 | 1 | B | Receptacle for storing a specified substance, noun/verb; trash can (British) |
| 24 | 2 | B | Fasten tightly, verb; problematic situation, noun |
| 25 | 1 | B | Decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead |
| 26 | 1 | B | Overindulge (…-watch Netflix); verb/noun |
| 27 | 2 | B | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 28 | 1 | B | The sharp part of a knife or saw, noun; or a long thin leaf of a plant (… of grass), noun; or skate using inline skates, verb |
| 29 | 1 | B | Not spicy at all; or without strong features; or dull and unremarkable |
| 30 | 2 | B | Russian pancake |
| 31 | 2 | B | Unable to see, adj.; or render unable to see, verb; or a structure where hunters hide, noun |
| 32 | 1 | B | Flashy jewelry (think rappers), noun |
| 39 | 1 | B | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 33 | 1 | D | Press lightly with a piece of absorbent material in order to clean or dry something, verb; or a small amount of something, noun (Brylcreem's "A little …'ll do ya!") |
| 34 | 1 | D | Participate in a casual or superficial way (he …d in writing when he was younger) |
| 35 | 1 | G | Talk at length, typically about trivial matters |
| 36 | 1 | G | Talk rapidly and unintelligibly, verb/noun |
| 37 | 1 | G | Insulting or mocking remark, noun/verb |
| 38 | 1 | G | Insincere & shallow |
| 39 | 2 | L | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 40 | 1 | L | Sex drive |
| 41 | 1 | N | Take, grab, or steal something; catch someone doing something wrong |
| 42 | 1 | N | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
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 Twitter.
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