- Letters: O/EILNTW
- Words: 57
- Points: 217
- 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 | I | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 2 | 1 | I | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 35 | 1 | I | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 3 | 1 | L | Slowly, in music & Italian |
| 4 | 1 | L | Like a roaring “King” animal |
| 5 | 1 | L | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 6 | 1 | L | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 7 | 1 | L | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 8 | 1 | L | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 9 | 2 | L | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 10 | 1 | L | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 11 | 1 | L | Moisturizing or suntan cream |
| 12 | 1 | L | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 13 | 1 | N | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 14 | 1 | N | Unit of force named after Sir Isaac …, or fig cookie |
| 15 | 1 | N | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 16 | 1 | N | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 17 | 1 | N | Group of 9 (musicians) |
| 18 | 1 | N | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 19 | 1 | N | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 20 | 1 | N | What you pass to someone in class, or ♪ in music |
| 21 | 1 | N | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 22 | 1 | O | Margarine |
| 23 | 1 | O | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 24 | 1 | O | Skateboard jump, or Stan’s slapstick partner |
| 25 | 1 | O | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 26 | 1 | O | Hooked up to the internet, compound adj. |
| 27 | 1 | O | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 28 | 1 | O | Nocturnal bird that hoots |
| 29 | 1 | T | Projecting piece of wood attached to a mortise, noun; or connect with one of those, verb |
| 30 | 1 | T | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 31 | 1 | T | Fabric for making “test” garments |
| 32 | 1 | T | Commode |
| 33 | 1 | T | Archaic, French term for the process of cleaning oneself (Eau de …) |
| 34 | 1 | T | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 35 | 1 | T | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 36 | 1 | T | 1,000 kilograms, UK spelling |
| 37 | 1 | T | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 38 | 1 | T | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 39 | 1 | T | Canada $2 coin nickname derived from their $1 avian coin name |
| 40 | 1 | T | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 41 | 1 | T | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 42 | 1 | T | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 43 | 2 | T | Cloth used to dry off after a shower |
| 44 | 1 | T | Rope used for hauling a boat or car, compound pangram |
| 45 | 1 | T | Place smaller than a city & larger than a village |
| 46 | 1 | T | Slang for person who lives in a small city rather than a rural area; or, in a college context, a student who lives in the host city away from the campus area |
| 47 | 1 | W | “Weeping” tree, or 1988 Val Kilmer fantasy film |
| 48 | 1 | W | Separate chaff from grain, or narrow down to the best (… out) |
| 49 | 1 | W | Someone who overuses fermented grape juice, slang |
| 50 | 1 | W | Literary noun & adj. for “custom” (as was her …, he was … to), or contraction of “will not” |
| 51 | 1 | W | Chinese dumpling (… soup) |
| 52 | 2 | W | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj. |
| 53 | 1 | W | Slang exclamation of elation, or Amazon daily deals siteag motto "Don't … on me" |
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