- Letters: P/ACILOT
- Words: 66
- Points: 334
- Pangrams: 6
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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 | AL | 6 | S Am mammal similar to but smaller than a llama |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 7 | Word for a sweet, fizzy alcoholic drink |
| 3 | 1 | AP | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 48 | 1 | AP | 10 | Relating to public affairs, or Dem. or Rep. parties; perfect pangram adj. |
| 60 | 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 4 | Mafia boss, or moveable bar on a guitar |
| 4 | 1 | CA | 7 | City where government is located (Washington, DC, Albany, Sacramento, etc.) |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 7 | Bldg. where Congress meets, perfect pangram |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 7 | “Cigar tree” |
| 8 | 1 | CL | 4 | Applaud |
| 9 | 1 | CL | 4 | Device to hold things together (paper or hair …) |
| 10 | 1 | CL | 4 | Sound of a horse’s hooves on a hard surface |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 4 | Chicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (… ed up) |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 5 | Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose |
| 38 | 1 | CO | 7 | Airplane driver |
| 13 | 1 | LA | 6 | Portable computer |
| 14 | 1 | LI | 4 | Fat-sucking procedure, abbr. |
| 17 | 1 | LO | 4 | Closed curve |
| 16 | 1 | LO | 6 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 15 | 1 | LO | 8 | Sucking candy on a stick |
| 19 | 1 | OC | 6 | Aquatic animal with eight arms |
| 18 | 1 | OC | 9 | Relating to the back of the head (… lobe), pangram med. adj. |
| 20 | 1 | OP | 4 | Gemstone from Australia, October birthstone |
| 21 | 1 | OP | 5 | Relating to the eye (… nerve), med. adj. |
| 21 | 1 | OP | 7 | Relating to the eye (… nerve), med. adj. |
| 22 | 1 | PA | 4 | Formal agreement, treaty (don’t make one with the Devil) |
| 23 | 1 | PA | 4 | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 27 | 1 | PA | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 28 | 1 | PA | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 29 | 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 30 | 1 | PA | 5 | Pontiff adj. |
| 32 | 1 | PA | 5 | Outdoor terrace adjoining a house, from Spanish (…furniture) |
| 24 | 1 | PA | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 25 | 1 | PA | 7 | Roof of the mouth |
| 31 | 1 | PA | 7 | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin) |
| 26 | 1 | PA | 8 | Resembling a royal residence (Buckingham?); spacious & splendid, adj. |
| 33 | 1 | PI | 4 | A printed type size, or medical condition that makes you want to eat non-foods |
| 37 | 1 | PI | 4 | Tablet of medicine |
| 40 | 1 | PI | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 36 | 1 | PI | 5 | One of a series of small ornamental loops forming an edge on ribbon or lace |
| 38 | 1 | PI | 5 | Airplane driver |
| 39 | 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 34 | 1 | PI | 7 | Cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley, & butter (chicken or veal …) |
| 35 | 1 | PI | 7 | ½–sized flute |
| 41 | 1 | PI | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 43 | 1 | PL | 4 | Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym |
| 44 | 1 | PL | 4 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 45 | 1 | PL | 4 | Scheme, noun or verb (Roth’s “The … Against America”); or storyline in fiction |
| 42 | 1 | PL | 5 | Hair braid, noun/verb |
| 50 | 1 | PO | 4 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 51 | 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 52 | 1 | PO | 4 | Swimming venue |
| 53 | 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang |
| 46 | 1 | PO | 5 | Disease that put FDR in a wheelchair |
| 54 | 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 55 | 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 47 | 1 | PO | 7 | (Of an action) seeming sensible & judicious under the circumstances, or relating to public affairs (body …), adj. |
| 49 | 1 | PO | 8 | Slang derogatory term for an elected member of government, or name of a media company that covers them |
| 48 | 1 | PO | 9 | Relating to public affairs, or Dem. or Rep. parties; perfect pangram adj. |
| 56 | 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 57 | 1 | TA | 7 | Cassava root starch used in pudding & boba tea balls |
| 59 | 1 | TI | 6 | Rhyming compound adj. that means “of the very best quality” (in … condition) (compound) |
| 58 | 1 | TI | 7 | Common bland-tasting fish |
| 62 | 1 | TO | 5 | Subject of a discussion (his ears must have been burning because he was the current … of conversation) |
| 61 | 1 | TO | 7 | Lightweight jacket, or final layer of paint; compound, ends in list word |
| 62 | 1 | TO | 7 | Subject of a discussion (his ears must have been burning because he was the current … of conversation) |
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.