Bee Roots for 2025-04-27

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
  • Letters: N/AFILPU
  • Words: 32
  • Points: 126
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

root #answers coveredanswer's first letterclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11AYearly record book
21AYearly, adj.
31AVoid a marriage
41ARing-shaped object, structure, or region
51AOpening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight
61ABee-related adj.
71FRoman ½ human ½ goat, not a young deer
82FAnimals of a particular region, adj. (flora & …)
101FLast one (… exam, “… Countdown”)
111FOrnament at end or top of an object
121FCaramel-topped custard
91IAdd material until the container or hole is at capacity
131LHawaiian porch or island
141LPut something down
151LRoman moon goddess, or nutrition bar brand
161L½–moon shaped fingertip base white area (Latin "little moon")
171NIndiaan flaat breaad
181NInexperienced person (from French)
191NSpike that’s hammered, noun/verb
201NGrandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog
211NHaving no legal or binding force; invalid
222PSensation from an injury, noun/verb
231PToasted Italian sandwich
251PPoster of a sex symbol ("model" or "girl"), or how you tack it to the wall, compound
261PFosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety
271POrdinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj.
281PDetailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb
291PSmall auk with a colorful beak
241UThin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb
301UForearm bone opposite radius

About this site

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