- Letters: B/AGILNU
- Words: 50
- Points: 282
- 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.
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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AL | 5 | Criminal’s excuse |
| 4 | 1 | BA | 4 | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 7 | 1 | BA | 4 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 9 | 1 | BA | 4 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb |
| 13 | 1 | BA | 4 | Sound of a collision, noun (“The Big … Theory”) |
| 11 | 1 | BA | 5 | Unoriginal, dull |
| 3 | 1 | BA | 6 | Sound a sheep makes |
| 8 | 1 | BA | 6 | Parcel of hay, or actor Christian |
| 12 | 1 | BA | 6 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 6 | 1 | BA | 7 | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 7 | 1 | BA | 7 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 9 | 1 | BA | 7 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb |
| 10 | 1 | BA | 7 | Prohibit, verb |
| 13 | 1 | BA | 7 | Sound of a collision, noun (“The Big … Theory”) |
| 5 | 1 | BA | 8 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 15 | 1 | BI | 4 | Invoice, or actor Murray |
| 15 | 1 | BI | 7 | Invoice, or actor Murray |
| 16 | 1 | BI | 7 | Receptacle for storing a specified substance, noun/verb; trash can (British) |
| 17 | 1 | BI | 7 | Overindulge (…-watch Netflix); verb/noun |
| 2 | 1 | BI | 8 | Yearly, adj. |
| 34 | 1 | BI | 8 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 14 | 1 | BI | 9 | Able to speak two languages, pangram |
| 18 | 1 | BL | 4 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 19 | 1 | BL | 4 | Russian pancake |
| 19 | 1 | BL | 5 | Russian pancake |
| 20 | 1 | BL | 5 | Flashy jewelry (think rappers), noun |
| 18 | 1 | BL | 8 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 25 | 1 | BU | 4 | Light-producing globe, head of garlic, or what you plant to get a tulip |
| 27 | 1 | BU | 4 | ♂ cow |
| 28 | 1 | BU | 4 | A stopper (wine cork), or to close with one, or a hole in a cask or anus (vulgar slang) |
| 21 | 1 | BU | 5 | Southern good ole boy |
| 23 | 1 | BU | 7 | Insect, noun (informal), bother, verb (informal) |
| 24 | 1 | BU | 7 | Trumpet-like musical instrument without valves, especially used in the military for Reveille and Taps |
| 26 | 1 | BU | 7 | Rounded swelling, noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | BU | 8 | Thin sphere of liquid enclosing air or another gas (the kids loved blowing soap …s) |
| 29 | 1 | BU | 8 | Blunder, verb |
| 30 | 1 | GA | 7 | Talk at length, typically about trivial matters |
| 31 | 1 | GA | 8 | Talk rapidly and unintelligibly, verb/noun |
| 32 | 1 | GI | 6 | Insulting or mocking remark, noun/verb |
| 33 | 1 | GL | 4 | Insincere & shallow |
| 34 | 1 | LA | 5 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 34 | 1 | LA | 6 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 35 | 1 | LU | 6 | Use oil to reduce friction and make something work better |
| 36 | 1 | NA | 7 | Take, grab, or steal something; catch someone doing something wrong |
| 37 | 1 | NI | 8 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 38 | 1 | NU | 6 | Small bump, or small stunted ear of corn |
| 6 | 1 | UN | 5 | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 10 | 1 | UN | 5 | Prohibit, verb |
| 6 | 1 | UN | 9 | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 10 | 1 | UN | 9 | Prohibit, verb |
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.