- Letters: O/ADILMN
- Words: 58
- Points: 231
- 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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| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Water-guzzling tree nut |
| 1 | AM | 5 | Protein building block acid, or a NH₂ group, noun |
| 1 | AM | 4 | A supply of bullets, slang abbreviation |
| 1 | AM | 7 | Smelly cleaning fluid, NH₃ |
| 1 | AM | 5 | Slang abbr. for a prenatal test that takes fluid from a uterus with a needle, noun |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | DI | 7 | Shape of a baseball field, or sparkly gem, noun |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Flintstones pet, or T. Rex family abbr. |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or stupid person, slang |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Balkan meat & rice wrapped in leaves |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Area of territory owned or controlled by a ruler or government (eminent …), noun |
| 1 | DO | 8 | Sovereign authority over a country or people (Canada was a … from 1867 to 1951) |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Spotted playing tile (“bones”) |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Terrible fate (they fell to their …), or pioneering 1st person shooter game |
| 1 | ID | 5 | Slang phrase particular to a language (“raining cats & dogs”), noun |
| 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Sheep (wool) oil, used as skin moisturizer |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Chauffeured, stretched car, slang abbr. |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 1 | LL | 5 | South American grassy plain |
| 1 | LO | 4 | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Fertile, sandy soil |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Borrowed $, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Cloth weaving device |
| 1 | LO | 4 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Wealth that’s an evil influence, per the New Testament & Milton |
| 1 | MA | 8 | Lute-like musical instrument, with paired metal strings, pangram (Rod Stewart's "… Wind"; featured instrument on "Maggie May") |
| 1 | MI | 7 | 1 followed by 6 zeroes |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Underling, as seen in “Despicable Me” |
| 1 | MO | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 1 | MO | 9 | Craze, noun (Beatle-…) |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Sound of pain or sexual pleasure (Harry Potter’s ghost “…-ing Myrtle”) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Grammar, music, logic, stats, & textile adj., relating to structure as opposed to substance, e.g. |
| 1 | MO | 4 | To work hard (archaic); homophone of bris snipper |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Fungal growth, or Jell–O shaper |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Mobster’s ♀ |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Soul-like thing in Leibniz' metaphysics; or math (category theory)/computer functional programming term for a single entity (think 1st name of Leonardo’s smiling Lisa + 1st letter of his last name) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Slang for something huge or remarkable, or Italian for “world” |
| 1 | MO | 4 | 1–channel sound abbreviation, or glandular fever “kissing disease” abbreviation |
| 1 | MO | 8 | In math, polynomial with only one term |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Emotional state (happy, angry, sad, etc.) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | $, slang (from Fiji) |
| 1 | MO | 4 | NASA Apollo missions landed on or circled it |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Connecting point |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Wanderer; or member of a people without a permanent home, who travel to find food, livestock pastures, or work |
| 1 | NO | 7 | Existing in name only; or a price far below the real value or cost (… fee) |
| 1 | NO | 9 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | OI | 6 | ♂ who works in the petroleum industry |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. 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