- Letters: Y/AEHLPT
- Words: 40
- Points: 200
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 5 | Narrow passageway between buildings. (… cat, …-oop) |
| 5 | 1 | AP | 5 | Submit your résumé (to a college or job), or be relevant (terms & conditions may…) |
| 6 | 1 | AP | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something |
| 4 | 1 | AP | 6 | Indifference |
| 7 | 1 | EE | 4 | Snake-like fish |
| 8 | 1 | ET | 5 | Chemical, C₂H₅ (…alcohol), similar to singer Merman |
| 9 | 1 | EY | 6 | Small round hole for shoelaces or strings; diminutive of sight organ |
| 10 | 1 | EY | 8 | Cuspid; canine (fang) below your peeper; (I’d give my … for) |
| 11 | 1 | HA | 5 | Pleased (“Don’t worry, be …”) |
| 12 | 1 | HE | 7 | Physical well-being (in sickness & in …) |
| 13 | 1 | HY | 4 | Intense promotion, noun or verb (“Don’t believe the…”) |
| 14 | 1 | LA | 6 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 15 | 1 | LA | 7 | Set of clothing & accessories for a newborn |
| 16 | 1 | LE | 8 | Fatal (“… Weapon” films) |
| 20 | 1 | PA | 5 | Slang term for father or grandfather |
| 21 | 1 | PA | 5 | Touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand, verb; or simple and somewhat glib or unconvincing, adj. (… answer) |
| 22 | 1 | PA | 5 | Peppermint candy (& friend of Marcie in “Peanuts”) or burger form |
| 23 | 1 | PA | 5 | Give $ in exchange for goods or services, verb/noun |
| 17 | 1 | PA | 6 | White-faced, NOT a bucket |
| 19 | 1 | PA | 6 | Tropical fruit with black seeds |
| 18 | 1 | PA | 7 | Pontiff adj. |
| 24 | 1 | PE | 5 | Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg |
| 25 | 1 | PE | 5 | Energy, liveliness, noun/verb |
| 26 | 1 | PE | 5 | Trivial (… crime) (think late “Heartbreakers” singer Tom) |
| 27 | 1 | PH | 5 | Taxonomic category that ranks above class and below kingdom |
| 28 | 1 | PL | 4 | Staged drama, or what kids do at recess |
| 29 | 1 | PL | 7 | Short dramatic piece |
| 30 | 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 31 | 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 8 | TV script |
| 34 | 1 | TE | 8 | Obsolete printer that sent & received messages |
| 32 | 1 | TE | 9 | Communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses; or ESP, pangram |
| 35 | 1 | TH | 4 | Plural non-gendered pronoun (… were delicious candies) |
| 36 | 1 | TY | 4 | What you do on a keyboard |
| 37 | 1 | YA | 5 | Sharp, shrill bark; slang term for a person's mouth; Pacific island with giant coins |
| 38 | 1 | YE | 4 | Informal affirmative reply |
| 39 | 1 | YE | 4 | Shout (Billy Idol’s “Rebel …”) |
| 40 | 1 | YE | 4 | Short, sharp cry of pain; or business review site & app |
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.