- Letters: O/AGHPRT
- Words: 61
- Points: 239
- 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 | AG | 4 | Very excited to hear or see something, adj. |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Ancient Greek market |
| 1 | AO | 5 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Lingo |
| 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Croc cousin, slang abbr. |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Alt milk source (nannies, billies, & kids) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, or unpleasant messy gel |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Trail mix of dried fruit & nuts |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Person who wears dark clothing, dark rock genre, or German invader of Rome |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Have to do so, slang contraction (I’ve … run) |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Medieval coin, or hulled kernels (bulgur, e.g.) used in soup & porridge (kasha, e.g.) |
| 1 | GR | 4 | Watered-down (nautical) rum |
| 1 | GR | 6 | Small picturesque cave (the Blue … in Capri) |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Crystallized frost |
| 1 | HO | 4 | O you jump through or spin around your waist (hula …) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | US Marine cheer word, each syllable pronounced separately |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Owl sound |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Jewish circle dance (“The …”) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Scary Steven King genre |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Asian dish similar to fondue; AKA steamboat (compound) |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Sunfish, kingfish, Jerusalem haddock, or redfin ocean pan; close to TV queen with her OWN network & magazine |
| 1 | OR | 6 | Make a speech |
| 1 | PA | 9 | Squad of soldiers who drop from planes; (…-er) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Talking tropical bird, noun; or to mimic someone, verb (pic of me) |
| 1 | PH | 7 | Ancient Egyptian ruler (watch the vowel order!) |
| 1 | PH | 6 | Someone who takes pictures for a living, slang |
| 2 | PH | 5,10 | Picture made using a camera: short form is more common in the Bee, long form is a pangram |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Bouncy “stick” |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Christopher Robbins’ Winnie The … Bear |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Lacking $, or worse than ideal |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Nautical “left,” harbor, or wine from Lisbon |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Support (… up), verb; on-stage object or ballot initiative abbr., noun |
| 1 | PR | 10 | Spread and promote an idea widely; or grow new plants from a parent plant |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Fabric car roof, or slang for convertible; compound that starts with old cloth |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Close relationship with good communications |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Carnivorous bird (eagle. hawk, owl, vulture) or dinosaur (veloci-…) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 1 | RO | 7 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Device or blade that spins |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Central plant anchor that grows straight down (others branch off it) & sucks up water; compound; a carrot is one |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Asian veg that sounds like next word |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TH | 6 | Front of neck, “Deep …” Watergate source |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Wrap worn in ancient Rome (… party) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | What you chew with |
| 1 | TO | 5 | 1st 5 books of Bible in scroll form for Jews |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Bull, Spanish |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Lethargy, not quite hibernation |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Soldiers (usually plural), or unit of Boy or Girl Scouts |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Archaic var. of “honesty”; you pledge your … in marriage vows |
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