- Letters: Y/AELMNT
- Words: 39
- Points: 210
- Pangrams: 2
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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.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 5 | Narrow passageway between buildings. (… cat, …-oop) |
| 4 | 1 | AM | 4 | Abbr. for … nitrite "poppers" you sniff at a rave; or C₅H₁₁ on its own |
| 5 | 1 | AN | 6 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body |
| 6 | 1 | EE | 4 | Snake-like fish |
| 7 | 1 | EL | 11 | The periodic table is full of these (singular) |
| 8 | 1 | EN | 5 | Wartime foe |
| 9 | 1 | EY | 6 | Small round hole for shoelaces or strings; diminutive of sight organ |
| 10 | 1 | LA | 6 | Disabled or weak; esp. foot or leg, causing a limp |
| 11 | 1 | LA | 6 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 14 | 2 | LA | 6 | Non-ordained or amateur ♂ (“In …’s terms”) |
| 13 | 1 | LA | 7 | Set of clothing & accessories for a newborn |
| 12 | 1 | LA | 8 | Capable of emerging, developing, or becoming active in the future (a … fingerprint) |
| 15 | 1 | LE | 6 | Not fatty (…meat), adj.; or incline (…back in your chair) |
| 18 | 1 | MA | 4 | More than a few (… people are saying) |
| 16 | 1 | MA | 5 | Convert grain for brewing (…–ED milk), noun/verb + adj. |
| 17 | 1 | MA | 5 | Adult ♂ |
| 19 | 1 | MA | 5 | Fellow member (cast-…) or joint occupant (room-…) |
| 20 | 1 | ME | 5 | Breakfast, lunch, or dinner |
| 21 | 1 | ME | 5 | The average in math, noun; unkind, adj. (“… Girls”); or intend (I didn’t … to do it) |
| 22 | 1 | ME | 5 | Animal flesh for consumption (beef, ham, etc.) |
| 23 | 1 | ME | 5 | What ice cream does when you leave it out of the freezer, verb |
| 21 | 1 | ME | 6 | The average in math, noun; unkind, adj. (“… Girls”); or intend (I didn’t … to do it) |
| 24 | 1 | ME | 8 | Relating to the mind (He has … health issues) |
| 25 | 1 | MY | 4 | Talking starling that’s often a pet |
| 27 | 1 | NA | 5 | ♀ goat, or nursemaid |
| 28 | 1 | NA | 5 | Well dressed, adj. |
| 26 | 1 | NA | 6 | What you’re called (Kevin or Susan, e.g.) |
| 30 | 1 | NE | 5 | UK outhouse, slang; or butterfly & fish mesh catcher adj. |
| 29 | 1 | NE | 6 | Tidy |
| 31 | 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 33 | 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 32 | 1 | TA | 6 | Not wild, adj./verb |
| 34 | 1 | TE | 5 | Minuscule, or trendy youth (…-bopper) |
| 35 | 1 | YE | 4 | Shout (Billy Idol’s “Rebel…”) |
| 36 | 2 | YE | 5 | Matchmaker or gossip, Yiddish |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech 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.
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
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.