- Letters: K/ABCLOR
- Words: 43
- Points: 178
- 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 | Surprised (taken …), adv. |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Archaic exclamation of regret or dismay; from list word for “absence of” |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Sweet braided Jewish bread, often with chocolate filling |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Part of body containing your spine |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Hesitate or be unwilling to accept an idea or undertaking; or illegal move by a pitcher in baseball |
| 1 | BA | 8 | Valve that automatically fills a tank after liquid has been drawn from it, compound |
| 1 | BA | 7 | Bartender's assistant, compound |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Dog vocalization, or tree skin |
| 1 | BA | 7 | Soldier’s lodging |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Color that reflects no light; color of the 8-ball |
| 1 | BL | 9 | Exclude from membership, usually by secret ballot, compound |
| 1 | BL | 5 | large solid piece of hard material, especially rock, stone, or wood, typically with flat surfaces on each side, noun; or prevent from moving in a particular direction, verb |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Dark German lager, or chicken sound |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Printed novel, noun; or reserve something, verb |
| 1 | BO | 8 | A framework, typically with rails or bars, for holding reading material, compound |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Small stream, noun; or tolerate, verb |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Invitation to return for a second audition, compound |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Heel sounds on tile, verb; or NPR “car” show guy 2 |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Sleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 1 | CL | 5 | It tells time |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Rooster, or slang for penis |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Prep or heat food |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Bound, printed recipes (e.g. Fanny Farmer’s), compound |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Wine bottle stopper, originally made from the bark of certain trees, noun; or insert such a stopper, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Slang for cocaine you smoke, or fracture line, noun + adj. |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Frog sound, or slang for “die” |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Slow-cooking “pot”, usually earthenware, noun; or preserve in such a pot, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | CR | 5 | Lawbreaker, slang (Nixon: “I’m not a …”), or shepherd’s staff, noun; or bend something, especially a finger, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | KA | 5 | Meat on a skewer (shish …) |
| 1 | KO | 5 | Tree climbing marsupial “bear” |
| 1 | KO | 4 | Small African tree with nuts that flavor Pepsi |
| 1 | KO | 4 | Crazy or eccentric person, NOT a chef |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Absence of (talent or imagination, e.g.), verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small, ground-dwelling songbird (meadow…), or something done for fun (he entered the race on a …) |
| 1 | LO | 4 | A door fastener with a key, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Direct one’s gaze toward someone or something, verb/noun |
| 1 | LO | 8 | A collection of photographs compiled to show off a model, photographer, style, stylist, or clothing line, compound |
| 1 | OA | 7 | Metal gadget on a boat that holds the thing with which you row, compound |
| 1 | OK | 4 | Green veg in gumbo |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Frame used to lock up bikes, set up billiards balls, organize spices, or dry dishes, e.g. |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Stone (Dwayne Johnson, with "The"); or what you do with a baby's cradle but shouldn't do with a boat, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | RO | 8 | Reduction, noun; or undo a change (such as a price increase or database transaction) verb/noun, compound pangram |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Chess piece AKA castle |
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