- Letters: I/ACOPRT
- Words: 65
- Points: 352
- Pangrams: 3
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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 | AC | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 1 | AI | 7 | Where you catch flights, compound |
| 1 | AO | 6 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | AP | 7 | Soft juicy orange-yellow fruit with a pit, resembling a small peach |
| 1 | AR | 6 | North Pole adj. (… Circle or Ocean) |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Opera solo |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 1 | CA | 9 | Component in an electric circuit that stores charges for a little while |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Rio de Janeiro native |
| 1 | CA | 9 | Italian hors d'oeuvre consisting of thin slices of raw beef or fish served with a sauce |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Group of eight bones that form the wrist and part of the hand |
| 1 | CI | 4 | “Hi” or “Bye” in Italian (“… bella”) |
| 1 | CI | 5 | “Around” when used before a year, Latin |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Cloud forming wispy streaks (“mare's tails”) at high altitude |
| 1 | CI | 6 | Tree genus that includes lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit, or the fruit of those trees |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Central American raccoon |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Fiber from the outer husk of the coconut, used for making ropes & matting |
| 1 | CR | 6 | Fault-finder (“everyone’s a …”), or arts & dining reviewer |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Small plant that blooms early in spring |
| 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 1 | OC | 6 | Aquatic animal with eight arms |
| 1 | OP | 5 | Relating to the eye (… nerve), med. adj. |
| 1 | OR | 8 | Religious music for orchestra & voice (Handel’s Messiah, e.g.) |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Twosome (socks, aces, e.g.) |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Musical suite of variations, usually for a solo instrument |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Outdoor terrace adjoining a house, from Spanish (… furniture) |
| 2 | PA | 7,9 | Person who vigorously supports their country & is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors (… Act or missile) |
| 1 | PI | 4 | A printed type size, or medical condition that makes you want to eat non-foods |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley, & butter (chicken or veal …) |
| 1 | PI | 5 | One of a series of small ornamental loops forming an edge on ribbon or lace |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Someone from a ship that flies the Jolly Roger; sea thief, often depicted with an eye patch |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Roof supported by columns at regular intervals, typically attached as a porch to a building |
| 1 | PO | 8 | Depiction of someone on canvas (… artist, self …) |
| 1 | PR | 7 | Penis adj.: resembling one, relating to ♂ sexuality, or having a persistently erect one; from Greek mythology |
| 1 | PR | 5 | Existing before in time, adj. (Sorry, I have a … engagement) |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Proportion in math (Golden …, e.g.) |
| 1 | RI | 7 | Italian cheese used in lasagna |
| 1 | RI | 4 | Civil unrest, noun; or to rampage, verb |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Indian flatbread that isn’t naan |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Cassava root starch used in pudding & boba tea balls |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Animal similar in appearance to a pig, lives in Central & S America & SE Asia |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 1 | TI | 6 | Rhyming compound adj. that means “of the very best quality” (in … condition, compound |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Subject of a discussion (his ears must have been burning because he was the current … of conversation) |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Shinto shrine gate, NOT double plural of donut shapes |
| 2 | TO | 4,5 | Donut shape |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 7 | Benedict Arnold, e.g. |
| 1 | TR | 9 | Italian restaurant with simple food |
| 1 | TR | 6 | Fine-knitted fabric, from French “to knit” |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Musical group of 3 (Kingston …) |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Journey, noun (you’ve won a … to Paris!), or stumble (… over your own 2 feet), verb |
| 1 | TR | 6 | Area near the equator |
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.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
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