- Letters: H/ACIORT
- Words: 58
- Points: 276
- 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 | 5 | What a sneeze sounds like |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Curved span |
| 1 | AR | 7 | No longer in use (words, e.g.), adj. |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Buddhist who has achieved nirvana; ends in “cap” synonym |
| 1 | AR | 9 | Swelling and tenderness of one or more joints |
| 1 | AT | 6 | Fasten 2 things together, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Excessive buildup of mucus; sounds like feline + pirate sound; has double R |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Intercept & hold (a fish, a thrown ball, e.g.) |
| 1 | CA | 9 | The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions |
| 1 | CH | 4 | Spiced Indian tea (… latte) |
| 1 | CH | 5 | Furniture for sitting |
| 1 | CH | 7 | Complete disorder and confusion |
| 1 | CH | 4 | Partially burn & blacken, verb; or trout-like fish |
| 1 | CH | 7 | Horse-drawn two-wheeled vehicle (…s of Fire), pangram |
| 1 | CH | 5 | Nautical map, or pictorial data representation (pie, bar …) |
| 1 | CH | 4 | Informal conversation, noun or verb (online … room, group …) |
| 1 | CH | 4 | Faddish “pet” mint plant |
| 1 | CH | 4 | Fashionable |
| 1 | CH | 5 | Girl, Spanish |
| 1 | CH | 6 | Pretentious style (or almost 2x fashionable) |
| 1 | CH | 4 | IOU note, Navy memo |
| 1 | CH | 8 | Idle small talk; slang compound noun or verb that starts with a list word |
| 1 | CH | 5 | Singing group (Mormon Tabernacle …) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Furniture for sitting |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Athletic instructor or trainer, noun/verb; or bus, noun |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Silver Pacific salmon |
| 1 | CO | 6 | A sidekick, or Roman military unit of 6 centuries (1/10 legion) |
| 1 | CR | 6 | Groin |
| 1 | HA | 4 | “Age of Aquarius” ‘60s nude hippie rock musical, or what grows on your scalp |
| 1 | HA | 7 | French name for navy bean, pangram |
| 1 | HA | 4 | ♂ deer, not ♥ |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Emerge from an egg, verb |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Archaic 3rd person singular present form of "possess" (Hell … no fury) |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Yoga type that pairs poses with breathing |
| 1 | HI | 5 | “Psycho” director Alfred nickname, or slang for thumb a ride, verb; or device on a vehicle that allows it to attach a trailer, noun |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Crystallized frost |
| 1 | HO | 5 | Cheap liquor |
| 1 | HO | 6 | US Marine cheer word, each syllable pronounced separately |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Owl sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Jewish circle dance (“The …”) |
| 1 | HO | 8 | Milky drink made from ground almonds, tiger nuts, or rice |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Scary Steven King genre |
| 1 | IC | 5 | Greek gods’ blood; or wound seepage |
| 1 | IT | 4 | What you scratch (an …) |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 1 | OR | 8 | Prescription shoe insert |
| 1 | RH | 6 | English speaking style in which R before a consonant or at the end of a word is pronounced |
| 1 | RI | 4 | Wealthy, adj. |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Scurrying insect; often starts with COCK– |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Dashboard engine RPM gauge abbr. |
| 1 | TH | 4 | Pronoun for the other thing (this & …) |
| 1 | TH | 6 | Straw roof covering |
| 1 | TH | 8 | The part of your body between neck and abdomen |
| 1 | TH | 6 | Front of neck, “Deep …” Watergate source |
| 1 | TO | 5 | What you chew with |
| 1 | TO | 5 | 1st 5 books of Bible in scroll form for Jews |
| 1 | TO | 5 | “Tiki” flame holder |
| 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.
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