- Letters: R/AIJNOT
- Words: 67
- Points: 325
- 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 letter | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | 4 | Slightly open, adj. |
| 1 | A | 5 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | A | 4 | Opera solo |
| 1 | A | 6 | Complete & utter (nonsense), archaic adj. |
| 1 | A | 5 | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 1 | A | 5 | Flower oil for perfume |
| 1 | A | 9 | The process of gradually reducing the size or strength of something through sustained attack or pressure (staff reduction will be accomplished through …) |
| 1 | A | 9 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | I | 9 | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 1 | I | 5 | Announce upcoming thing (next guest), or prelude (beginner’s course, book preface), slang abbr. |
| 1 | I | 4 | Element Fe (atomic number 26), or hot clothes presser, noun/verb |
| 2 | I | 8,10 | Make someone annoyed, impatient, or angry; or cause inflammation |
| 1 | J | 7 | Custodian, pangram |
| 2 | N | 8,9 | Provide a spoken commentary |
| 1 | N | 5 | Slang abbr. for chem. used as explosive & heart med. |
| 1 | N | 4 | “Black” in French; or dark mystery genre (film …) |
| 1 | N | 6 | French opposite of “oui,” + “painting & sculpture”; compound |
| 1 | N | 4 | Edible seaweed, eaten either fresh or dried in sheets |
| 1 | N | 7 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 2 | O | 6,7 | Make a speech |
| 1 | O | 8 | Religious music for orchestra & voice (Handel’s Messiah, e.g.) |
| 1 | R | 4 | Liquid precipitation |
| 1 | R | 5 | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 1 | R | 4 | Indian royal title |
| 1 | R | 4 | Hindu queen, anagram of liquid precipitation |
| 1 | R | 4 | Speak or shout wildly & at length |
| 1 | R | 7 | Machine gun sound |
| 1 | R | 5 | Proportion in math (Golden …, e.g.) |
| 1 | R | 6 | Allow each person to have only a fixed amount of something because of a shortage, verb/noun |
| 1 | R | 6 | Palm fiber for furniture |
| 1 | R | 5 | Dry red wine from Spain made from Tempranillo grapes |
| 1 | R | 4 | Civil unrest, noun; or to rampage, verb |
| 1 | R | 4 | Horse with 2–colored coat |
| 1 | R | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | R | 4 | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 2 | R | 7,8 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 1 | R | 4 | Indian flatbread that isn’t naan |
| 1 | R | 6 | Spiral pasta, fusilli |
| 1 | R | 5 | Device or blade that spins |
| 1 | T | 7 | Onomatopoetic name for war trumpet |
| 1 | T | 6 | Hindu/Buddhist mystical text, involving sex |
| 1 | T | 9 | Exclamation used to express exasperation, frustration, or incredulity (What in … is going on?) |
| 1 | T | 4 | Asian veg that sounds like fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | T | 5 | Fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | T | 4 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 1 | T | 6 | Plaid patterned Scottish cloth |
| 1 | T | 6 | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 1 | T | 5 | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 1 | T | 9 | Ascertain the amount of a constituent in a solution, using a reagent (chemistry) |
| 1 | T | 5 | Shinto shrine gate, NOT double plural of donut shapes |
| 1 | T | 4 | Ripped, adj. or past participle |
| 1 | T | 4 | Bull, Spanish |
| 1 | T | 4 | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 1 | T | 5 | Mexican sandwich |
| 1 | T | 7 | Italian ice cream with rum, almonds, & cherries |
| 1 | T | 4 | Donut shape |
| 1 | T | 5 | Choo-choo, or prep for athletic event |
| 1 | T | 5 | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 1 | T | 7 | Benedict Arnold, e.g. |
| 1 | T | 9 | Italian restaurant with simple food |
| 1 | T | 4 | Musical group of 3 (Kingston …) |
| 1 | T | 6 | Son of Poseidon, largest Neptune moon; mollusk with a tall spiral shell |
| 1 | T | 4 | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
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