- Letters: M/ACGINP
- Words: 50
- Points: 280
- Pangrams: 3
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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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| root # | answers covered | answer's first letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A | Point at a target |
| 2 | 1 | A | Unit of electric current, noun; or make someone more excited or energetic (figurative, based on that unit of current) |
| 3 | 1 | A | Jungian term for inner ♀ part of ♂ |
| 4 | 1 | C | Alligator with name similar to, or same as, British Caribbean islands (George Town) |
| 5 | 1 | C | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 6 | 2 | C | Live temporarily in a tent, verb/noun, gerund form is a pangram |
| 7 | 2 | C | Organized course of action to achieve a goal, noun/verb (political …), pangram (and of course, so is its gerund form) |
| 8 | 1 | G | Competitive form of play (poker, soccer, Scrabble, etc.) |
| 9 | 1 | G | Archaic word for a ♂ street urchin, from French |
| 10 | 1 | G | Γ, γ (3rd Greek letter), & shortest-length EM radiation (… rays) |
| 11 | 1 | G | Derogatory slang for someone with a leg injury, or cord with a wire used in upholstery trimming |
| 12 | 1 | I | Picture or other representation of a person or thing (mirror … is that thing reversed), or public perception of a celebrity or company (polish their…), noun/verb |
| 13 | 1 | I | Form a mental picture or concept; or John Lennon's 1971 album and title song |
| 14 | 1 | I | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 15 | 1 | I | Have an effect or impact, especially a negative one; or advance over an area belonging to someone or something else (usually followed by "on") |
| 16 | 1 | M | Self-defense pepper spray, staff, or spice from a nutmeg |
| 17 | 1 | M | The 3 biblical wise ♂, Latin plural |
| 18 | 2 | M | Card tricks & illusions, noun/adj. (… wand) |
| 19 | 1 | M | Hot fluid below Earth’s crust; lava before it’s erupted |
| 20 | 2 | M | Permanently injure |
| 21 | 1 | M | Primary (Street), adj. |
| 22 | 2 | M | ♀ parent, slang |
| 23 | 1 | M | Adult ♂ |
| 24 | 1 | M | Administer (she got promoted to …ment) |
| 25 | 1 | M | Japanese graphic novels |
| 26 | 3 | M | Craze, noun (Beatle-…) |
| 27 | 1 | M | Exodus food from the sky |
| 28 | 1 | M | Diagram that shows where things like towns, roads and water are, noun/verb |
| 29 | 1 | M | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 30 | 1 | M | Silent performer |
| 31 | 1 | M | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 32 | 1 | M | Chop finely |
| 33 | 1 | M | Where you dig for ore, or anti-ship bomb |
| 34 | 1 | M | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 35 | 1 | M | small, handheld device for taking movies |
| 36 | 1 | M | Special abbreviated training camp for football players held usually in the spring or early summer |
| 37 | 1 | M | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 38 | 1 | M | Smallest amount (the … bet at this table is $100) |
| 39 | 1 | N | What you’re called (Kevin or Susan, e.g.) |
| 40 | 1 | P | S Am treeless grassland |
| 41 | 1 | P | Cent. Am. country with a canal & hat |
| 42 | 2 | P | ♂ who controls prostitutes, noun/verb |
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