- Letters: T/ABHMOR
- Words: 62
- Points: 239
- 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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| root # | answers covered | answer's first letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A | Head monk, perhaps at Downton |
| 2 | 1 | A | Call off (a mission or takeoff, e.g.) |
| 3 | 1 | A | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 4 | 1 | A | Buddhist who has achieved nirvana; ends in “cap” synonym |
| 5 | 1 | A | Basic unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb), adj. form that means just one of these is a pangram, and so is the noun form that means breaking down into basic units |
| 6 | 1 | A | Flower oil for perfume |
| 50 | 1 | A | Beat or pulsate (teenage heart…) |
| 7 | 1 | B | Thai $ |
| 8 | 1 | B | Shower alternative |
| 9 | 1 | B | Something not slippery to stand on when you get out of a tub or shower, compound |
| 10 | 1 | B | Chamber where you “freshen up,” compound pangram |
| 11 | 1 | B | Small ship, as in “tug-” |
| 12 | 1 | B | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 13 | 1 | B | Privacy enclosure (voting, phone …), or Lincoln assassin |
| 14 | 1 | B | Each of 2 things (I’ll take this AND that), adv. |
| 15 | 1 | B | Underside, or slang for ass |
| 16 | 1 | B | Badly behaved child; or a type of sausage (…wurst) |
| 17 | 1 | B | Thin soup |
| 18 | 1 | H | ♂ deer, not ♥ |
| 19 | 1 | H | Archaic 3rd person singular present form of "possess" (Hell … no fury) |
| 20 | 1 | H | Yoga type that pairs poses with breathing |
| 21 | 1 | H | Owl sound, noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | M | Indian honorific (… Gahdhi), or rice brand |
| 23 | 1 | M | Huge, adj.; or large extinct elephant (wooly …) |
| 24 | 1 | M | Rodent with short legs and a thick body, often called groundhog or woodchuck |
| 25 | 1 | M | Store (K–, Wal–) |
| 26 | 1 | M | Addition/subtraction/multiplication/division subject abbr. |
| 27 | 1 | M | Water ditch surrounding a castle |
| 28 | 1 | M | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point), adj.; or obscure verb meaning to raise a topic for discussion |
| 29 | 1 | M | Paste for bricks, cup for grinding (… & pestle), or gun for lobbing shells |
| 30 | 1 | M | Drab butterfly |
| 31 | 1 | M | Device (electric or gasoline) that produces movement (in a car, e.g.) |
| 32 | 1 | M | Powered watercraft, compound |
| 33 | 1 | M | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 34 | 1 | O | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 35 | 1 | O | Make a speech |
| 36 | 1 | R | Machine gun sound |
| 37 | 1 | R | Machine resembling a human |
| 38 | 1 | R | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 39 | 1 | R | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 40 | 1 | R | Device or blade that spins |
| 41 | 1 | T | Forbidden, cultural no-nos |
| 42 | 1 | T | Small drum used to accompany a pipe or fife played by the same person |
| 43 | 1 | T | Asian veg that sounds like fortunetelling cards |
| 44 | 1 | T | Fortunetelling cards |
| 45 | 1 | T | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 46 | 1 | T | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 47 | 1 | T | Skin “ink” |
| 48 | 1 | T | Pronoun for the other thing (this & …) |
| 49 | 1 | T | Front of neck, “Deep …” Watergate source |
| 50 | 1 | T | Beat or pulsate (teenage heart…) |
| 51 | 1 | T | Ketchup & ragù fruit |
| 52 | 1 | T | Burial vault (Who’s in Grant’s …?) |
| 53 | 1 | T | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 54 | 1 | T | What you chew with |
| 55 | 1 | T | 1st 5 books of Bible in scroll form for Jews |
| 56 | 1 | T | Bull, Spanish |
| 57 | 1 | T | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 58 | 1 | T | Mexican sandwich |
| 59 | 1 | T | People mover in Disney parks, parking lots, & cities |
| 60 | 1 | T | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
| 61 | 1 | T | Archaic var. of “honesty”; you pledge your … in marriage vows |
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