- Letters: L/ACDIOR
- Words: 65
- Points: 240
- 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 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 2 | 1 | AR | 4 | Seed covering |
| 4 | 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 5 | Actress Burnett with a variety show, or a Xmas song |
| 3 | 1 | CA | 6 | Rough cotton fabric, or colorful cat |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 7 | Unit of energy in food |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 7 | Capacity of an automobile; compound (I have a … of groceries; can you help me bring them in?) |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 8 | Caribbean veg dish |
| 10 | 1 | CI | 5 | Short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells; (anatomy) eyelash |
| 11 | 1 | CL | 4 | Wearing, or encased; adj. (iron-… guarantee); archaic past participle of clothe |
| 13 | 1 | CL | 4 | Lump of earth, or dunce (slang insult) |
| 12 | 1 | CL | 6 | Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 4 | Wind up spirally, or Hamlet’s “mortal …” |
| 17 | 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 4 | Low temperature, adj.; or flu-like illness, noun (I have a…) |
| 24 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 19 | 1 | CO | 5 | Baby or horse upset tummy |
| 23 | 1 | CO | 5 | Red, green, blue, purple, etc. |
| 25 | 1 | CO | 5 | Reef building marine invertebrates, a deep pink hue, or a sea off Australia |
| 20 | 1 | CO | 6 | Cloth or leather strip a dog or cat wears around its neck |
| 28 | 1 | CO | 6 | Animal pen, or “O.K. …” gunfight site |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 7 | Supplement that amends a will |
| 21 | 1 | CO | 7 | Southern cabbage …greens; add a letter to the neck of a shirt |
| 22 | 1 | CO | 7 | In anatomy, a gelatinous substance; in chem., a mixture that doesn’t settle & can’t be separated |
| 26 | 1 | CO | 7 | Warm & friendly (… relations), adj.; or a liqueur (cherry …), pangram noun |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 7 | Small Toyota sedan, or the inner ring of flower petals |
| 29 | 1 | DI | 4 | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob |
| 31 | 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 30 | 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 32 | 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 34 | 1 | DO | 5 | Literary term for a a state of great sorrow or distress (Spanish for pain), noun |
| 33 | 1 | DO | 6 | US currency |
| 35 | 1 | DR | 5 | Power tool with bits for making holes, or practice for an emergency (fire …); noun |
| 36 | 1 | DR | 5 | Curious or unusual in a way that provokes amusement, adj. |
| 37 | 1 | DR | 5 | Spit leaking out of your mouth, noun/verb |
| 38 | 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 39 | 1 | IL | 5 | Hip bone |
| 40 | 1 | LA | 4 | Non-clerical |
| 41 | 1 | LA | 4 | Animal or criminal den |
| 42 | 1 | LA | 4 | Pig fat for cooking |
| 43 | 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 40 | 1 | LA | 6 | Non-clerical |
| 44 | 1 | LI | 4 | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 46 | 1 | LI | 4 | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 45 | 1 | LI | 5 | Purple flower or shade |
| 47 | 1 | LO | 4 | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 49 | 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 50 | 1 | LO | 4 | A particular point or place |
| 51 | 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 52 | 1 | LO | 4 | ♂ version of “Lady” in nobility, or term for God; or, exclamation expressing surprise or worry |
| 48 | 1 | LO | 5 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 53 | 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 54 | 1 | OR | 4 | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 58 | 1 | RA | 4 | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 55 | 1 | RA | 6 | Grouping of people based on shared physical characteristics (regardless of …, creed, or color) |
| 56 | 1 | RA | 6 | Modern tire design; or arranged like spokes of a wheel, adj. |
| 57 | 1 | RA | 7 | Extreme or new (… idea, change), adj. |
| 59 | 1 | RA | 7 | Car or wagon that is part of a train, compound |
| 60 | 1 | RA | 8 | Trains & tracks, compound noun; ends in below (“I’ve been working on the …”) |
| 61 | 1 | RI | 4 | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 62 | 1 | RI | 4 | Small stream |
| 63 | 1 | RO | 4 | Stir up mud or trouble (…ed the waters) |
| 64 | 1 | RO | 4 | What you do to dice, verb; or Tootsie candy & small bread format, noun |
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.