- Letters: A/DGHILN
- Words: 69
- Points: 362
- 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 | Join something to something else |
| 2 | 1 | A | Confuse, muddle |
| 3 | 1 | A | Another time; once more; adv. |
| 4 | 1 | A | How old you are, noun; or grow older, verb; or period of history, noun |
| 5 | 1 | A | Help |
| 6 | 1 | A | Be sick |
| 7 | 2 | A | Pond scum |
| 8 | 2 | A | Sync up positionally (… the 2 holes so you can put a screw through them) |
| 9 | 1 | A | Medical term for severe (chest) pain |
| 10 | 1 | A | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 11 | 1 | A | Yearly record book |
| 12 | 1 | A | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 13 | 1 | D | Mexican & Central Am. flowering plant (“Black …” 2006 de Palma film noir) |
| 14 | 1 | D | Move a baby up and down in a playful or affectionate way |
| 15 | 1 | D | Mild cuss (just get the … thing working!); euphemism for “condemn to Hell” expletive |
| 16 | 1 | D | Hang or swing loosely |
| 17 | 2 | D | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob (don't touch that …!) |
| 18 | 1 | G | go around from one place to another, in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment |
| 19 | 1 | G | Choke or retch, verb; or material placed over someone's mouth to prevent them from speaking or crying out, noun/verb |
| 20 | 1 | G | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 21 | 2 | G | Increase the amount or rate of (you always … a few pounds on a cruise), noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 22 | 1 | G | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 23 | 1 | G | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 24 | 2 | G | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 25 | 2 | G | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain …"), noun/verb |
| 26 | 1 | G | The world of criminal groups, compound |
| 27 | 1 | G | Lanky & bumbling; gerund (think a newborn foal trying to stand; starts with a group of thugs such as the Crips; the more common term ends in –LY) |
| 28 | 1 | G | Nerve cluster |
| 29 | 1 | G | Pleased, delighted |
| 30 | 2 | G | Greet or welcome warmly, or at least with the appearance or warmth, usually said of a politician working a crowd, compound verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 31 | 1 | G | Organ in the body that secretes chemicals |
| 32 | 1 | G | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 33 | 1 | H | Dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something |
| 34 | 2 | H | Frozen rain “stone,” noun; or summon a taxi, verb |
| 35 | 1 | H | Kosher in Islam |
| 36 | 1 | H | Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty |
| 37 | 2 | H | What sticks out of your sleeve |
| 38 | 1 | H | Manage a situation, verb, gerund form is a pangram; or something you pull to open a drawer; or something you hold to carry a suitcase, noun |
| 39 | 2 | H | What you do to a painting you want to mount on a wall, or to a criminal sentenced to the gallows |
| 40 | 1 | H | Tiny, torn skin on your fingertip, compound |
| 41 | 1 | H | Mountainous region, esp. north of Glasgow, compound pangram |
| 42 | 1 | I | The phase of breathing that expands your chest |
| 43 | 1 | I | Not on the coast |
| 44 | 1 | I | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface, compound |
| 45 | 1 | L | Load cargo (root is archaic, derivatives are still in use) |
| 46 | 1 | L | Long-handled utensil for serving soup |
| 47 | 1 | L | Fall behind, verb/noun |
| 48 | 1 | L | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 49 | 2 | L | Alight on the ground, verb/noun |
| 50 | 2 | L | Put something down |
| 51 | 1 | N | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 52 | 1 | N | Nothing, Spanish |
| 53 | 1 | N | Annoy or irritate with persistent fault-finding or continuous urging |
| 54 | 1 | N | Greek water nymph, or dragonfly larva |
| 55 | 2 | N | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 56 | 1 | N | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
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