- Letters: H/AGILNT
- Words: 52
- Points: 325
- Pangrams: 5
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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 | AL | 6,9 | Get down from a train, bus or other form of transport, verb; or (about a bird) land after flying, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | AN | 12 | Utterly destroy, obliterate, gerund forms is a pangram |
| 1 | AN | 7 | Mound made by industrious six-legged creatures |
| 1 | HA | 8 | Dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something |
| 2 | HA | 4,7 | Frozen rain “stone,” noun; or summon a taxi, verb |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Kosher in Islam |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty |
| 2 | HA | 4,7 | Come to a complete & sudden stop, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 2 | HA | 4,7 | What you do to a painting you want to mount on a wall, or to a criminal sentenced to the gallows |
| 1 | HA | 8 | Tiny, torn skin on your fingertip, compound |
| 1 | HA | 6 | Dislike intensely, verb/noun |
| 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 | 6 | Hernia type where tummy pokes through diaphragm |
| 1 | HI | 4 | Opposite of low; or greater than normal (… definition TV), or stoned (… as a kite), adj. |
| 2 | HI | 9,12 | Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 2 | HI | 8,11 | Move at top speed, often when retreating or fleeing, compound verb (we've gotta … it outta here), gerund form is a pangram |
| 2 | HI | 4,7 | What Jack & Jill went up |
| 1 | HI | 4 | Sword or dagger handle |
| 1 | HI | 7 | Door fastener to frame that lets it swing open & closed, noun/verb |
| 2 | HI | 4,7 | Clue, suggestion, noun/verb |
| 1 | HI | 7 | Strike with a hand, tool, or weapon, verb/noun; popular song or movie |
| 2 | IN | 8,8 | The phase of breathing that expands your chest |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Flat strip of wood, often plastered as wallboard |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Wood-shaping machine, noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 2 | LI | 5,8 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | LI | 9 | It precedes thunder |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Near, archaic (“Repent, the end is …!”) |
| 1 | NI | 5 | Opposite of day, adj. form is a pangram |
| 1 | NI | 10 | What you use when you don’t want to sleep in the dark, compound |
| 1 | NI | 5 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Middle Eastern sesame seed paste or sauce |
| 1 | TA | 9 | Rear illumination on a car, compound noun |
| 1 | TH | 4 | Comparison word (bigger … a breadbox) |
| 1 | TH | 4 | Pronoun for the other thing (this & …) |
| 1 | TH | 5 | Part of leg between hip & knee |
| 2 | TH | 4,8 | Skinny, adj. (… Mints) |
| 1 | TH | 5 | Unnamed object, noun (person, place, or …) |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Having no slack (all my pants became too … during the pandemic), adj. |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Give 10% of your income to the 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