- Letters: E/AFGLOP
- Words: 51
- Points: 174
- 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 | 5 | Stare open-mouthed |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Claim without proof |
| 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sunburn gel from “… vera” plant |
| 1 | AP | 6 | Climax, or furthest point of moon’s orbit |
| 2 | AP | 6,8 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 1 | AP | 5 | 1 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away |
| 1 | EA | 5 | A bald one is the USA's national bird |
| 1 | EL | 5 | Run away to marry |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 1 | FA | 7 | Fried chickpea balls often served in pita |
| 1 | FE | 4 | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 1 | FE | 4 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 1 | FE | 5 | ♂, slang (young or little …) |
| 1 | FL | 8 | Tail on microorganism or sperm that propels it, Latin plural |
| 1 | FL | 8 | Mast used to fly Old Glory, compound pangram |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Hopping insect whose bites cause itching in dogs & cats |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Sheet of ice atop the ocean, homophone of moving liquid |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Social or speaking blunder |
| 1 | GA | 6 | A “herd” of geese |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Strong wind storm |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Stare open-mouthed |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Measuring dial (fuel …) |
| 1 | GE | 5 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 1 | GO | 6 | Eye protector for swimming or skiing; or stare with wide & bulging eyes |
| 1 | GO | 6 | Popular web search site |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Jacket edge that’s folded back |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Nissan electric car; 4 of these on a clover is lucky |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Theater section behind orchestra |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | OG | 4 | S–shaped line or molding, noun; or having a double continuous S–shaped curve, adj. |
| 1 | OG | 4 | Eye amorously |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Book leaf, noun; or summon with a beeper or announcement, verb |
| 1 | PA | 4 | White-faced, NOT a bucket |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Repeated bell ringing or laughter |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Archaic derogatory term for (ill-gotten) wealth, rhymes with a bookcase tier |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Humanity, or celeb mag with annual “sexiest man” |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence |
| 1 | PO | 4 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
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