- Letters: M/AEFLOT
- Words: 60
- Points: 206
- 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.
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 two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 1 | AF | 6 | Visible part of a fire |
| 1 | 1 | AM | 4 | A supply of bullets, slang abbreviation |
| 2 | 1 | AT | 4 | Smallest unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb) |
| 3 | 1 | EM | 5 | Ham it up as an actor |
| 4 | 1 | FA | 4 | Renown, or 1980s movie & TV show about NYC performing arts HS |
| 6 | 1 | FE | 5 | Woman in French |
| 5 | 1 | FE | 6 | ♀, formal term (the sex that can produce offspring) |
| 7 | 1 | FL | 5 | Visible part of a fire |
| 8 | 1 | FL | 8 | UK term for person with whom you share an apartment, compound |
| 9 | 1 | FO | 4 | Mattress material, or beer froth |
| 10 | 1 | LA | 4 | Tibetan Buddhist monk (Dalai …) |
| 11 | 1 | LA | 4 | Disabled or weak; esp. foot or leg, causing a limp |
| 12 | 1 | LE | 5 | Math term for intermediate or helping theorem in a proof |
| 13 | 1 | LL | 5 | S Am camel |
| 14 | 1 | LO | 4 | Fertile, sandy soil |
| 15 | 1 | LO | 4 | Cloth weaving device |
| 16 | 1 | MA | 4 | ♂, the sex that produces sperm |
| 17 | 1 | MA | 4 | Shopping mecca |
| 19 | 1 | MA | 4 | Convert grain for brewing (…–ed milk), noun/verb |
| 20 | 1 | MA | 4 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 22 | 1 | MA | 4 | Fellow member (cast-…) or joint occupant (room-…) |
| 20 | 1 | MA | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 23 | 1 | MA | 5 | Dull finish on paint or photos |
| 18 | 1 | MA | 6 | Hammer with a large, usually wooden head, used especially for hitting a chisel |
| 21 | 1 | MA | 6 | Vertebrate class that has hair, milk, & live birth |
| 24 | 1 | ME | 4 | Breakfast, lunch, or dinner |
| 25 | 1 | ME | 4 | Animal flesh for consumption (beef, ham, etc.) |
| 27 | 1 | ME | 4 | Encounter (I’m supposed to … him in the park) |
| 29 | 1 | ME | 4 | What ice cream does when you leave it out of the freezer, verb |
| 30 | 1 | ME | 4 | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 31 | 1 | ME | 4 | Office note abbr. |
| 32 | 1 | ME | 4 | Beyond prefix, greek |
| 34 | 1 | ME | 4 | Dispense justice (“… out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 28 | 1 | ME | 5 | Confusing scuffle |
| 33 | 1 | ME | 5 | Hard but malleable material such as iron, steel, bronze, etc |
| 35 | 1 | ME | 6 | Person’s ability to cope with adversity (test your…), NOT iron or tin; noun |
| 26 | 1 | ME | 8 | 1970s singer (“I’d Do Anything for Love”), or molded & baked ground beef, compound pangram |
| 36 | 1 | MO | 4 | Water ditch surrounding a castle |
| 37 | 1 | MO | 4 | Burrowing blind rodent, or embedded spy |
| 38 | 1 | MO | 4 | Mobster’s ♀ |
| 39 | 1 | MO | 4 | Shed feathers, hair, or skin; verb |
| 41 | 1 | MO | 4 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point) |
| 42 | 1 | MO | 4 | Speck of dust |
| 20 | 1 | MO | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 40 | 1 | MO | 5 | $, slang (from Fiji) |
| 43 | 1 | MO | 5 | Place to sleep when you’re travelling (…6, e.g.) |
| 44 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic & unaccompanied |
| 46 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 45 | 1 | MO | 6 | Pattern of irregular spots; usually an adj. |
| 47 | 1 | OA | 7 | Breakfast cereal strongly associated with a quaker guy |
| 48 | 1 | OM | 6 | Fried eggs folded around fillings such as cheese |
| 48 | 1 | OM | 8 | Fried eggs folded around fillings such as cheese |
| 50 | 1 | TA | 4 | Not wild, adj./verb |
| 49 | 1 | TA | 6 | Mexican dish of seasoned meat wrapped in cornmeal dough and steamed or baked in corn husks |
| 51 | 1 | TE | 4 | Group of sports players (Yankees, e.g.), noun; … up, verb |
| 53 | 1 | TE | 4 | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 52 | 1 | TE | 8 | A fellow player in the same group, compound |
| 55 | 1 | TO | 4 | Large, heavy book |
| 56 | 1 | TO | 5 | Symbolic object (… pole) |
| 54 | 1 | TO | 6 | Ketchup & ragù fruit |
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.