- Letters: C/DEHNOT
- Words: 62
- Points: 340
- 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 | 4 | C | Give up (power or territory) |
| 2 | 1 | C | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 3 | 2 | C | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 4 | 2 | C | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 5 | 1 | C | Sequence of 3 nucleotides in DNA |
| 6 | 1 | C | ♀ student, or mixed ♂ & ♀ school, slang abbr. |
| 7 | 1 | C | Silver Pacific salmon |
| 8 | 1 | C | Swindle, verb; someone serving a prison sentence (noun, slang) |
| 9 | 1 | C | Sea snail with spiral shell |
| 10 | 2 | C | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 11 | 1 | C | Self-owned apartment with an HOA, slang abbr. |
| 12 | 2 | C | Accept or allow misbehavior to continue (“We don’t … this behavior”) |
| 13 | 2 | C | Ice cream holder shape |
| 14 | 2 | C | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb/noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 15 | 2 | C | (of a word or fact) imply, verb |
| 16 | 2 | C | Assert something as a position in an argument; or compete to win something |
| 17 | 2 | C | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “Table of …s”) |
| 18 | 1 | C | Soft murmur made by a dove or pigeon, noun/verb |
| 19 | 1 | C | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 20 | 1 | C | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 21 | 2 | C | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 4 | 2 | D | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 22 | 1 | D | A person who has died, in legalese; noun |
| 23 | 1 | D | Proper (Are you …? Can I come in?), adj. |
| 24 | 1 | D | Chrysler Bldg. style (Art …) |
| 25 | 2 | D | Extract the essence of something by heating or boiling |
| 26 | 2 | D | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 27 | 1 | D | Person, usually a volunteer, who acts as a guide in a museum, art gallery, or zoo |
| 4 | 2 | E | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 28 | 2 | E | Reflection of a sound, reverberation, noun/verb |
| 29 | 2 | E | Engrave metal, glass or stone (…ing); or corrode (…ed away by acid) |
| 30 | 1 | H | Consequently, or in the future (…forth) |
| 31 | 1 | H | Boss (head …); Japanese |
| 32 | 1 | H | Cheap liquor |
| 33 | 1 | N | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 34 | 1 | N | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 35 | 2 | N | Indentation on an edge or surface, noun/verb (arrows have a … at the end for the bowstring); or a deep, narrow mountain pass, past tense is a pangram |
| 36 | 1 | O | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 37 | 1 | O | A single time (they deliver … a week) |
| 38 | 1 | T | Last word in name of Cambridge school M.I.T., abbr. |
| 39 | 1 | T | Electronic dance music that features a fast beat and synthesized sounds, usually without words |
| 40 | 1 | T | (Formal or archaic adv.) from a place previously mentioned, or as a result (…-forth means “from that time forward") |
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