- Letters: O/ACEHLT
- Words: 73
- Points: 307
- 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.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AC | 5 | What a sneeze sounds like |
| 6 | 1 | AL | 4 | Sunburn gel from “… vera” plant |
| 8 | 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 5 | 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 7 | 1 | AL | 5 | Hawaiian greeting |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 7 | Booze, chemically |
| 4 | 1 | AL | 8 | Distribute (resources) for a particular purpose |
| 9 | 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 8 | Caribbean veg dish |
| 12 | 1 | CE | 5 | Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument |
| 13 | 1 | CH | 9 | Dark ingredient in many types of candy |
| 16 | 1 | CL | 4 | Lump of blood that stops bleeding or circulation |
| 17 | 1 | CL | 5 | Fabric |
| 14 | 1 | CL | 6 | Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals |
| 15 | 1 | CL | 6 | Bell in French, or bell-shaped hat |
| 17 | 1 | CL | 6 | Fabric |
| 19 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad |
| 20 | 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 21 | 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 24 | 1 | CO | 4 | Silver Pacific salmon |
| 25 | 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor |
| 30 | 1 | CO | 4 | Young ♂ horse |
| 31 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 32 | 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 33 | 1 | CO | 4 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 2 | 1 | CO | 5 | Do something |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 5 | Athletic instructor or trainer, noun/verb; bus, noun |
| 23 | 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 28 | 1 | CO | 6 | Flange or socket for setting a gem |
| 22 | 1 | CO | 7 | Spiral cavity of the inner ear |
| 26 | 1 | CO | 7 | Gather & assemble papers in proper order |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 7 | Gather (used plates), solicit & receive (charity $), or acquire (rare coins); verb |
| 22 | 1 | CO | 8 | Spiral cavity of the inner ear |
| 29 | 1 | CO | 9 | Linguistic term for frequently using words together; or place 2 facilities together; contains list word |
| 34 | 1 | EC | 4 | Reverberation, or Amazon smart speaker |
| 35 | 1 | HA | 4 | Nimbus (ring of light or glowing cloud) atop a saint, or Xbox shooter game |
| 37 | 1 | HE | 5 | Phone greeting |
| 36 | 1 | HE | 8 | Satan’s pit; an oppressive or unbearable place; compound noun |
| 38 | 1 | HO | 4 | Golf ball target (get a …-in-one) |
| 39 | 1 | HO | 4 | Otter den |
| 41 | 1 | HO | 4 | Owl sound |
| 40 | 1 | HO | 5 | Cheap liquor |
| 42 | 1 | HO | 5 | Place to stay when traveling (Eagles “… California”) |
| 48 | 1 | LO | 4 | Scottish body of water where Nessie lives |
| 49 | 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 50 | 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 51 | 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 43 | 1 | LO | 5 | Fish family that includes the “clown”, or English filmmaker Ken (“I, Daniel Blake”) |
| 44 | 1 | LO | 5 | Reluctant (to), adj.; often confused with verb ending in E meaning “hate” |
| 45 | 1 | LO | 5 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 52 | 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 44 | 1 | LO | 6 | Reluctant (to), adj.; often confused with verb ending in E meaning “hate” |
| 46 | 1 | LO | 6 | Place where something happens (exotic …) |
| 47 | 1 | LO | 6 | Find, pinpoint; verb related to above |
| 53 | 1 | OA | 4 | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 55 | 1 | OC | 5 | Base–8 number system |
| 56 | 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 54 | 1 | OC | 6 | Small S Am wild cat |
| 57 | 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
| 58 | 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 59 | 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 60 | 1 | TE | 8 | Abstain from drinking alcohol |
| 61 | 1 | TH | 5 | A pin, typically one of a pair, fitted to the gunwale of a rowboat to act as the fulcrum for an oar |
| 63 | 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 64 | 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 65 | 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 70 | 1 | TO | 4 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 66 | 1 | TO | 5 | What you chew with |
| 69 | 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 68 | 1 | TO | 6 | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 62 | 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “...& Fugue in D Minor”) |
| 67 | 1 | TO | 9 | Pain in the body part you chew with (compound) |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech 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.
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
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.