- Letters: N/ABEILP
- Words: 64
- Points: 290
- 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 | AL | 5 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 1 | AL | 9 | Able to be transferred to new ownership, legal adj. (negative form is better known from in… rights) |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Relating to high mountains |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Heat then cool metal or glass slowly to toughen it |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Bee-related adj. |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Sleep breathing disorder |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Whale straining “teeth” |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Unoriginal, dull |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Cause of annoyance, or DC Comics villain (he’s the … of my existence) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Legume (lima …), noun; or hit on the head, verb |
| 1 | BE | 8 | A pitch aimed at a batter’s head, compound |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Head-hugging brimless cap with a button at the crown (propeller optional), NOT a legume |
| 1 | BE | 7 | Straight, direct course between 2 points, compound (think this puzzle’s name) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 2 | BI | 7,8 | Period of 2 years, Latin plural |
| 1 | BI | 7 | Flat geometric surface; or short for flying vehicle |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Russian pancake |
| 1 | EL | 4 | Énérgy, stylé, énthusiasm; from Frénch |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | IN | 11 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Stupid, silly, ridiculous (… questions or comments); adj. |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Concave belly button, slang |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small road (Beatles’ Penny … or Superman’s Lois …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Not fatty (… meat), adj.; or incline (… back in your chair) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Bank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt |
| 2 | LI | 4,6 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Cloth napkin fabric |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Scruff of the neck |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Tide with least difference between low & high water |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Bowling variation with 1 target less than standard; compound |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Teat that babies suck on |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Song of praise or triumph |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Single sheet of window glass |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Flat component set into the surface of a door or wall; flat surface with instruments (control ...) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Backside of a hammer |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Relating to punishment (law) |
| 1 | PE | 6 | ♂ sex organ |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Game that involves small metal balls, a sloping table, and flippers; compound |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 1 | PI | 9 | Tropical fruit with yellow flesh, segmented skin, and stiff leaves (major crop of Hawaii) |
| 1 | PI | 8 | Tube that transports oil & gas, compound |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj. |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Flat geometric surface; or short for flying vehicle |
| 1 | PL | 8 | Military academy cadet, slang |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Puerto Rican music having a highly syncopated rhythm and often satirical lyrics |
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