- Letters: Y/ABDELT
- Words: 46
- Points: 240
- Pangrams: 2
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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 two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | 1 | AB | 5 | Bldg. occupied by monks or nuns (“Downton …”) |
| 5 | 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 4 | 1 | AL | 5 | Narrow passageway between buildings. (… cat, …-oop) |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 7 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 6 | 1 | BA | 4 | Infant |
| 7 | 1 | BA | 5 | Opposite of good |
| 9 | 1 | BA | 5 | What you use to hit the ball in games such as baseball or cricket; flying mammal |
| 10 | 1 | BA | 5 | Broad inlet of the sea where the land curves inward, noun; or brown horse with black points, noun; or bark or howl loudly, verb |
| 8 | 1 | BA | 6 | Head with no hair, or tire with no tread |
| 11 | 1 | BE | 5 | Drop of sweat, or small decorative object (for a necklace, e.g.) |
| 12 | 1 | BE | 5 | Fix a rope around a cleat, rock, pin, or other object, to secure it; or stop that, nautical slang |
| 13 | 1 | BE | 5 | Stomach, slang |
| 12 | 1 | BE | 7 | Fix a rope around a cleat, rock, pin, or other object, to secure it; or stop that, nautical slang |
| 32 | 1 | BE | 9 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 14 | 1 | BL | 6 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 15 | 1 | BY | 4 | Computer memory unit, NOT nibble |
| 16 | 1 | DA | 5 | Papa (… long legs, sugar …) |
| 17 | 1 | DA | 5 | Move slowly, or have casual sex with |
| 18 | 1 | DA | 6 | Couch that can be made up into a bed, compound made from opposite of night + furniture to sleep on |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 5 | Make something late (flight …, rain …) |
| 19 | 1 | DE | 6 | Not alive |
| 20 | 1 | DE | 7 | Expert marksman, or disc with holes for sailboat lines, compound made from opposite of alive + vision organ |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 7 | Make something late (flight …, rain …) |
| 21 | 1 | DE | 9 | Formal discussion in which opposing arguments are put forward, noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 9 | Make something late (flight …, rain …) |
| 23 | 1 | DY | 4 | Something that consists of 2 parts, from Greek (Kylo Ren & Rey, e.g.) |
| 24 | 1 | DY | 4 | Substance used to change the color of something, noun/verb |
| 24 | 1 | DY | 7 | Substance used to change the color of something, noun/verb |
| 25 | 1 | ED | 4 | Water swirl, NOT clothier Bauer |
| 26 | 1 | EE | 4 | Snake-like fish |
| 27 | 1 | EL | 8 | Make someone ecstatically happy, verb |
| 28 | 1 | EY | 4 | Organ of vision |
| 30 | 1 | EY | 6 | Small round hole for shoelaces or strings; diminutive of sight organ |
| 29 | 1 | EY | 7 | Body part you see with, compound |
| 29 | 1 | EY | 9 | Body part you see with, compound |
| 31 | 1 | LA | 4 | ♀ counterpart of gentleman ("… & the Tramp") |
| 32 | 1 | LA | 6 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 33 | 1 | LA | 7 | Set of clothing & accessories for a newborn |
| 34 | 1 | TA | 5 | Striped cat with a distinctive M on its forehead |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 37 | 1 | TE | 5 | 1st Pres. Roosevelt, stuffed bear, or ♀ all-in–1 undergarment |
| 38 | 1 | YE | 4 | Shout (Billy Idol’s “Rebel …”) |
| 38 | 1 | YE | 6 | Shout (Billy Idol’s “Rebel …”) |
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.