- Letters: T/ABGLNO
- Words: 47
- Points: 195
- 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 | AB | 5 | Head monk, perhaps at Downton |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 1 | AT | 6 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | BA | 6 | What you mark to vote |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Thin stick used by a conductor or passed in a relay race |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Make a sound like a sheep, goat, or calf; slang |
| 1 | BL | 7 | Bad behavior, open and unashamed |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Make or become swollen with fluid or gas, esp. stomach |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Stain (on your record), noun; or dry using absorbent material (forehead dampness), verb |
| 1 | BL | 6 | Slang for drunk |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Small ship, as in “tug-” |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Runner Usain, or what you screw into a nut |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 1 | GA | 7 | Brave, heroic |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Slang for a clumsy or oafish person (“You big …”) |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Be smug in your success or your opponent’s misfortune, verb |
| 1 | GL | 7 | Of a sound produced by the opening between the vocal folds; a … stop is the sound of the T in “cat,” e.g.; adj. |
| 1 | GN | 4 | Tiny flying insect |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Alt milk source (nannies, billies, & kids) |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Have to do so, slang contraction (I’ve … run) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Large oared vessel carried by a sailing ship, compound pangram |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Hypothetical, very small, self-propelled machine |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Indian small drum pair; NOT dining room furniture |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Forbidden, cultural no-nos |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Someone who persistently and often annoyingly follows the lead of another |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 5 | A bird of prey's claw |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 1 | TA | 5 | South American ballroom dance with abrupt pauses, noun/verb |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TO | 8 | Long, narrow sled for coasting downhill |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Wrap worn in ancient Rome (… party) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Chinese mafia, or BBQ grabber if plural (or used as a verb) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
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