- Letters: R/ACDLOT
- Words: 67
- Points: 300
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | Treaty, or large Honda sedan; noun; or agree (we are in …), verb |
| 1 | AC | 5 | Do something |
| 1 | AL | 9 | Distribute (resources) for a particular purpose |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, especially for making sacrifices |
| 2 | AO | 5,6 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Musically, “with the bow,” or gas brand |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Flower oil for perfume |
| 2 | AT | 7,9 | Entice, lure, or evoke (… attention; opposites …), verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Unit of weight for gems, NOT bunny food |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Thing used to play poker & bridge, noun; or ask for ID as proof of age before entry, verbified noun |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Capacity of an automobile; compound (I have a … of groceries; can you help me bring them in?) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Actress Burnett with a variety show, or a Xmas song |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Orange veg that bunnies eat |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Shopping trolley you push |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Capacity of shopping trolley, compound pangram |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Eye cloudiness, or waterfall |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Cloth or leather strip a dog or cat wears around its neck |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Southern cabbage …greens; add a letter to the neck of a shirt |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Red, green, blue, purple, etc. |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Reef building marine invertebrates, a deep pink hue, or a sea off Australia |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Unit of firewood, or a string-like object (umbilical, vocal, electric …) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Small Toyota sedan, or the inner ring of flower petals |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Animal pen, or “O.K. …” gunfight site |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Espresso with a small amount of steamed milk, smaller than a flat white |
| 1 | CR | 4 | Holey shoe, or alligator relative abbr. |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Spike thrown at a board |
| 2 | DO | 6,8 | “Who” travels in a TARDIS, or physician + degree they & professors hold; adjective form of the degree is a pangram |
| 1 | DO | 6 | US currency |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Literary term for a a state of great sorrow or distress (Spanish for pain), noun |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Room or bldg. entrance |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Mahimahi; or South American freshwater fish with a golden body and red fins |
| 1 | DO | 6 | “Old & feeble” insult used by N Korea about our former pres. |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Mild exclamation of annoyance used by cartoon villains, anagram of spike thrown at board |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Curious or unusual in a way that provokes amusement, adj. |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Spit leaking out of your mouth, noun/verb |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Pig fat for cooking |
| 1 | LO | 7 | Find, pinpoint; GPS helps you do this |
| 1 | LO | 4 | ♂ version of “Lady” in nobility, or term for God; or, exclamation expressing surprise or worry |
| 1 | OD | 4 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 1 | OR | 4 | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 1 | OR | 6 | Make a speech |
| 1 | OR | 4 | Killer “whale” |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Machine gun sound |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Ornamental decorative style from the late Baroque |
| 1 | RO | 4 | What you do to dice, verb; or Tootsie candy & small bread format, noun |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Large crucifix above altar, anagram of bldg. entrance |
| 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 | 4 | Asian veg that sounds like fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Bull, Spanish |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Large land area, or body passage (“digestive …”) |
| 1 | TR | 7 | Farm vehicle for towing |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Step on; snake flag motto "Don't … on me" |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Monster who lives under a bridge, or online forum troublemaker |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
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