- Letters: P/ADGINT
- Words: 48
- Points: 261
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | AD | 5,8 | Get used to a new situation, or modify for new use |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Large primate without a tail, including gorilla, chimpanzees, and orangutans, noun/verb |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Bee-related adj. |
| 1 | DA | 7 | Fish by letting the fly bob lightly on the water |
| 1 | DI | 7 | Put something down quickly into liquid, verb; or brief swim, noun |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Stare open-mouthed |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Brief period of sleep during the day |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Thick piece of soft material used to cushion something, noun/verb |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Heathen; worshiper of the old gods (… rituals) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Book leaf, noun; or summon with a beeper or announcement, verb |
| 1 | PA | 10 | Number the sheets of a document; or, for a computer system, divide a long text into pieces that could be printed on a single sheet |
| 2 | PA | 4,7 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 2 | PA | 5,8 | Latex or oil-based wall coating |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Something you cook food in, noun; try to find gold in a stream, verb; something a critic loves to do, verb |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Chinese bamboo-eating bear |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Term of respect for a Hindu scholar &/or priest, from Sanskrit; rhymes with masked “robber” word |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Stab of emotion (… of guilt or regret) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 2 | PA | 4,7 | What a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand, verb; or simple and somewhat glib or unconvincing, adj. (… answer) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Green film from aging on copper, or sheen on wood from polishing |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Give $ in exchange for goods or services, verb/noun |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Grammatically simplified form of a language, NOT an urban avian pest, noun/adj. |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Animal that is the source of bacon, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Stuffed añimal with toys & cañdy that you hit with a stick |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 2 | PI | 4,7 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 1 | PI | 4 | 16 fluid oz., or typical UK beer serving |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Large hole in the ground, noun; set someone in competition against, verb |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Touch lightly, verb/noun, or spout for water or beer |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Adhesive strip |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Native Am conical hut; 3 spellings |
| 1 | TI | 7 | The end of a pointed thing, noun; money given for good service, noun/verb |
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