- Letters: G/BDELNO
- Words: 66
- Points: 326
- 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 | B | Plead |
| 2 | 1 | B | Archaic “shoo!”; compound exclamation |
| 3 | 2 | B | Be part of a group; or be in an exclusive relationship with someone; or (said of a thing) be owned by someone, past tense is a pangram |
| 4 | 2 | B | Online journal, noun/verb |
| 5 | 1 | B | Wet muddy ground too soft to support something heavy; become stuck in such a place, verb (negotiations …ed down) |
| 6 | 2 | B | Cause someone to be astonished or overwhelmed |
| 7 | 1 | B | Water pipe for smoking weed, or sound of a large bell |
| 8 | 1 | B | Paired small drum held between the knees |
| 9 | 2 | B | Wasteful or pointless activity that gives the appearance of having value, noun/verb, present and past tense are both pangrams |
| 10 | 2 | D | Avoid by a sudden quick movement (… the military draft; play …ball) |
| 11 | 1 | D | Chief magistrate of Venice or Rome, historically; now his palace is a museum; or Elon Musk's government-destruction organization |
| 12 | 1 | D | Persistent, adj.; or stalked, verb |
| 13 | 1 | D | Remaining silent & motionless to hide (lie …) (think domestic canine) |
| 14 | 1 | D | Very mild expletive for surprise, irritation, or anger, compound made from canine + past tense of the opposite of come |
| 15 | 2 | D | Follow a sharply bending route (shaped like a canine limb), compound |
| 16 | 1 | D | ₫ (Vietnam $), or 2nd ½ of doorbell sound |
| 17 | 1 | D | Gadget you plug into your computer to show you bought a software package |
| 18 | 2 | E | A border or outer boundary, or to provide one; win by a narrow margin |
| 19 | 1 | E | What baby birds hatch from, noun; or throw those things at a house or car, verb; or encourage someone to do something, usually something dumb, verb |
| 20 | 1 | E | Creamy Xmas drink with nutmeg & rum |
| 21 | 1 | G | Thick, clear, slightly sticky substance, especially one used in cosmetic or medicinal products, noun; or become more solid, verb; or take a definite form, verb |
| 22 | 2 | G | Castrate (a horse) |
| 23 | 1 | G | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 24 | 1 | G | DNA sequence that determines traits, or singing cowboy Autry |
| 25 | 1 | G | Rock with crystals inside |
| 26 | 1 | G | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 27 | 1 | G | Narrow valley, or Eagles singer Frey |
| 28 | 1 | G | Semi-liquid lump, as in cheese |
| 29 | 1 | G | The whole earth, or a model of it, usually on a stand that allows it to spin |
| 30 | 2 | G | Eat quickly and noisily; or sound that turkeys make |
| 31 | 2 | G | Eye protector for swimming or skiing; or stare with wide & bulging eyes |
| 32 | 2 | G | Element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 33 | 1 | G | Away, out of, past; adj. (“… Girl” film with Affleck) |
| 34 | 2 | G | Orchestra chime or dinner bell |
| 35 | 1 | G | Virtuous (“… Humor” ice cream brand); or sizable (a … amount of hot fudge); or approving exclamation (Oh …! We’re having ice cream!) |
| 36 | 2 | G | Popular web search site |
| 37 | 1 | G | Large number (10¹⁰⁰), NOT a web search site (rather, the inspiration for the search site's name) |
| 38 | 1 | G | Ruffian |
| 39 | 1 | L | Narrow, projecting cliff “shelf,” or window sill |
| 40 | 1 | L | Body part that connects the rest of you to your feet |
| 41 | 1 | L | Mythical story “(Sleepy Hollow,” e.g.), or singer John married to Chrissy Teigen |
| 42 | 2 | L | Provide someone with a place to sleep (at a ski resort?) |
| 43 | 1 | L | Tree trunk that has been cut or fallen down; official record of events, noun/verb |
| 44 | 1 | L | Theater section behind orchestra |
| 45 | 1 | L | Company graphic symbol; Target’s is a red bullseye ◎ |
| 46 | 2 | L | “Short” antonym, adj.; or yearn (for) |
| 47 | 1 | O | Having an stretched-out rectangular or oval shape |
| 48 | 1 | O | S–shaped line or molding, noun; or having a double continuous S–shaped curve, adj. |
| 49 | 2 | O | Eye amorously |
| 50 | 1 | O | Dark Chinese tea (black dragon) |
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