- Letters: O/AHPRTY
- Words: 68
- Points: 286
- 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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
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 | AH | 4 | Nautical greeting (“… there, matey!”) |
| 1 | AO | 5 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | AR | 6 | Steep-sided gully in SW US; Spanish for creek |
| 1 | AT | 7 | Waste away from disuse (muscles, e.g.), pangram |
| 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 2 | HO | 4,5 | Crystallized frost |
| 1 | HO | 4 | O you jump through or spin around your waist (hula …) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | US Marine cheer word, each syllable pronounced separately |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Cheer word (hip hip …) |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Owl sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | HO | 5 | Having the flavor or aroma of Humulus lupulus |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Jewish circle dance (“The …”) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Scary Steven King genre |
| 1 | HO | 9 | Person or thing that strongly encourages an action (usually starts with EX–); obscure adj. |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Asian dish similar to fondue; AKA steamboat, compound |
| 1 | HY | 4 | Slang abbr. for medical needle (-dermic) |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Grain that is Quaker's specialty |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 2 | OR | 6,7 | Make a speech |
| 1 | PA | 9 | Squad of soldiers who drop from planes; (…-er) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Talking tropical bird, noun; or to mimic someone, verb |
| 1 | PH | 7 | Ancient Egyptian ruler (watch the vowel order!) |
| 1 | PH | 5 | Picture made using a camera: short form is more common in the Bee, long form is a pangram |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Christopher Robbins’ Winnie The … Bear |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Lacking $, or worse than ideal |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Flower used to make opium or honor veterans |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Nautical “left,” harbor, or wine from Lisbon |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Depict someone (as an actor or on canvas), verb, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Kid’s toilet |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Support (… up), verb; on-stage object or ballot initiative abbr., noun |
| 1 | PY | 4 | “…-maniac” who likes to start fires, slang abbr. |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Close relationship with good communications |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Carnivorous bird (eagle, hawk, owl, vulture) or dinosaur (veloci-…) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Strong cord made by twisting together strands of fibers, noun/verb |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Phone with dial, adj., or int’l service org (… Club) |
| 2 | RO | 7,8 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Device or blade that spins |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Central plant anchor that grows straight down (others branch off it) & sucks up water; compound; a carrot is one |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Asian veg that sounds like fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 2 | TH | 6,7 | Front of neck, “Deep …” Watergate source |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 2 | TO | 5,6 | What you chew with |
| 1 | TO | 5 | 1st 5 books of Bible in scroll form for Jews |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Bull, Spanish |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Lethargy, not quite hibernation |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Mexican sandwich |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Soldiers (usually plural), or unit of Boy or Girl Scouts |
| 1 | TR | 6 | Award statue or cup in sports & entertainment |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Archaic var. of “honesty”; you pledge your … in marriage vows |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Helen of “The Iliad” home, or oz. for gold & gems |
| 1 | TY | 4 | Keybord eror, slang |
| 1 | TY | 4 | Newbie, from Latin “recruit” |
| 1 | YA | 5 | Exclamation ("I’m rich!"), or Web portal & search engine before Google! |
| 1 | YO | 6 | “Hey, over here!” exclamation, or chocolate drink brand |
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 social media.
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