- Letters: C/ABLNOR
- Words: 64
- Points: 316
- 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 | AC | 5 | Nut from an oak tree |
| 1 | AR | 6 | 1 of 2 classes in a tarot pack (major & minor), a mystery or deep secret, or specialized knowledge, noun |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Musically, “with the bow,” or gas brand |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Meat strips from the sides or belly of a pig; or Philosopher & statesman Sir Francis …, 1561–1626 |
| 1 | BA | 4 | French for bench; judges sit “en …” as a full court |
| 1 | BA | 8 | Mexican BBQ; origin of English word via Texas; starts with 1st 5 letters of “Jeannie” actress Eden name |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Group of like-minded voters |
| 2 | BR | 5,6 | Wild western horse, or Ford SUV |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Secret political faction |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Jewish mysticism; usually starts with K |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Poolside gazebo |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Caribbean veg dish |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Artificial waterway (Erie, Suez, Panama …) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 1 | CA | 10 | Large orb used as ammo, noun; or jump into water with tucked knees, slang verb (“… Run" film), compound |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Rapeseed oil |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Bread starch avoided on many diets, slang abbr. |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Element 6 (… dating) |
| 1 | CA | 9 | Roman pasta sauce with pork, eggs, pepper, & cheese (spaghetti …) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Relating to physical, especially sexual, needs and activities (… knowledge) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Tree or shrub whose pods are often used to make a chocolate substitute |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Actress Burnett with a variety show, or a Xmas song |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Group of related (Scottish) families |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals |
| 1 | CO | 4 | “Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Venomous snake with a hood |
| 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor |
| 1 | CO | 9 | Irish mashed potatoes & cabbage (think large weapon that shoots balls) |
| 1 | CO | 6 | The act of working with someone to produce or create something, abbrev |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Cloth or leather strip a dog or cat wears around its neck |
| 1 | CO | 5 | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Red, green, blue, purple, etc. |
| 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Reef building marine invertebrates, a deep pink hue, or a sea off Australia |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Veg on a cob |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Trite & sentimental, pangram adj.; compound; literally, an orb of maize |
| 1 | CO | 7 | An ear of maize, compound (… pipe) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Small Toyota sedan, or the inner ring of flower petals |
| 2 | CO | 6,7 | Upper part of the sun's atmosphere |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Animal pen, or “O.K. …” gunfight site |
| 1 | CR | 4 | Crustacean with claws & eye stalks |
| 1 | CR | 4 | Holey shoe, or alligator relative abbr. |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Hum or sing in a soft, low voice, especially in a sentimental manner (think Sinatra or Bublé) |
| 1 | LO | 5 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Drug cop, slang |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Drug dealer, old-fashioned slang |
| 1 | NO | 8 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 1 | OR | 4 | Killer “whale” |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Mammal with a mask |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Bitterness or resentfulness, especially when long-standing |
| 1 | RO | 8 | Recorded phone message from an auto dialer, compound |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Ornamental decorative style from the late Baroque |
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