- Letters: I/ABDLOR
- Words: 51
- Points: 204
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 1 | AB | 5 | Heat water to 212° F or 100°C |
| 1 | 1 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 2 | 1 | AI | 7 | Compound hoops term that ends in list word: a shot that misses the basket rim & backplate |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 5 | Criminal’s excuse |
| 5 | 1 | AR | 4 | Opera solo |
| 6 | 1 | AR | 4 | Dry (climate or land), adj. |
| 7 | 1 | AR | 4 | Seed covering |
| 4 | 1 | AR | 7 | Variety of round-grained Italian rice used in making risotto |
| 8 | 1 | BA | 4 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 9 | 1 | BA | 6 | Legal term for one who transfers possession but not ownership of property to the custody of another |
| 10 | 1 | BA | 6 | Spanish term for “neighborhood” |
| 11 | 1 | BI | 4 | Invoice, or actor Murray |
| 15 | 1 | BI | 4 | An avian; it has wings & a beak (crow, robin, etc.) |
| 13 | 1 | BI | 8 | Usually-plural formal term for the game of pool |
| 14 | 1 | BI | 8 | Geometry & anatomy term for symmetry that is both left/right & also around its central axis; starts with Latin “2” prefix & ends in a modern tire type |
| 29 | 1 | BI | 8 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 12 | 1 | BI | 9 | Large outdoor advertising poster, or music industry magazine; compound pangram |
| 16 | 1 | BO | 4 | Heat water to 212° F or 100°C |
| 20 | 1 | BR | 4 | Vigor, Italian; often used in music as “allegro con …” |
| 17 | 1 | BR | 5 | Hair or challah weave, noun/verb |
| 18 | 1 | BR | 5 | Thicket of prickly shrubs (… patch) |
| 21 | 1 | BR | 5 | Cook by direct exposure to heat (under the burner, e.g.) |
| 19 | 1 | BR | 6 | Woman who is getting married |
| 22 | 1 | DI | 4 | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob |
| 24 | 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 23 | 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 25 | 1 | DR | 4 | Archaic word for a very small amount, noun; or to let fall, verb; …s & [dreary and dull]s; start of bouncing a game orb when moving on the court, or what small amounts of liquid do when falling |
| 26 | 1 | DR | 5 | Power tool with bits for making holes, or practice for an emergency (fire…); noun |
| 27 | 1 | DR | 5 | Star Wars robot (R2D2, C3PO, BB–8), or last syllable of Google phone OS (An…) |
| 28 | 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American…” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 30 | 1 | LA | 4 | Animal or criminal den |
| 31 | 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 29 | 1 | LA | 5 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 29 | 1 | LA | 6 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 32 | 1 | LI | 4 | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 34 | 1 | LI | 4 | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 33 | 1 | LI | 6 | Sex drive |
| 35 | 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 41 | 1 | RA | 4 | Sudden attack, as in “air” or police;” or insect spray |
| 42 | 1 | RA | 4 | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 36 | 1 | RA | 5 | Jewish minister or teacher |
| 37 | 1 | RA | 5 | Adj. for a dog frothing at the mouth or a fanatical person |
| 39 | 1 | RA | 5 | AM/FM music & talk device in car & home |
| 40 | 1 | RA | 5 | Distance from a point on a circle to the center |
| 38 | 1 | RA | 6 | Modern tire design; or arranged like spokes of a wheel, adj. + adv. |
| 43 | 1 | RA | 8 | Spectator at a horse race who watches from the fence along the track; compound; starts with bar synonym; ends in avian list word |
| 44 | 1 | RA | 8 | Trains & tracks, compound noun; ends in below (“I’ve been working on the…”) |
| 45 | 1 | RI | 4 | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 47 | 1 | RI | 4 | Small stream |
| 46 | 1 | RI | 6 | Referring to sexual matters in an amusingly coarse or irreverent way, adj.; ends in list word |
| 48 | 1 | RO | 4 | Stir up mud or trouble (…-ed the waters) |
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.