- Letters: G/INOQTU
- Words: 42
- Points: 274
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GI | 7 | Live performance by or engagement for a musician or group, especially playing pop or jazz; noun/verb |
| 2 | 1 | GI | 7 | Clear alcoholic spirit flavored with juniper berries; or card game |
| 4 | 1 | GO | 4 | Orchestra chime or dinner bell |
| 5 | 1 | GO | 4 | Thug, noun |
| 7 | 1 | GO | 4 | Swollen foot disease from excess uric acid; Ben Franklin had it |
| 3 | 1 | GO | 5 | leave; move from one place to another |
| 4 | 1 | GO | 7 | Orchestra chime or dinner bell |
| 6 | 1 | GO | 7 | Make a groove with a sharp tool; overcharge (figurative) |
| 8 | 1 | GU | 7 | Lethal weapon; slang term for someone who uses it (hired …), noun/verb |
| 9 | 1 | GU | 7 | Stomach or belly, noun; or take out the intestines of a fish before cooking, verb |
| 10 | 2 | IG | 8 | Catch fire, or cause to do so |
| 11 | 1 | IN | 5 | Bar of precious metal |
| 12 | 1 | IN | 6 | A baseball game is divided into 9 of these |
| 13 | 1 | IN | 8 | Recite with little rise & fall of pitch (the minister …-ed the prayer) |
| 14 | 1 | IN | 9 | TurboTax company, or know by feeling rather than evidence |
| 15 | 1 | NO | 6 | Head, slang (use your…), noun |
| 16 | 1 | NO | 6 | What you pass to someone in class, or ♪ in music |
| 3 | 1 | ON | 7 | leave; move from one place to another |
| 17 | 1 | OU | 5 | $ spent, to a CPA, literal opposite of “income”; or, in gerund form, extroverted |
| 18 | 1 | OU | 6 | Have better or more weapons (pistols), or surpass in power, verb + gerund |
| 19 | 1 | OU | 6 | Day trip, or revealing that someone’s gay, gerund |
| 17 | 1 | OU | 8 | $ spent, to a CPA, literal opposite of “income”; or, in gerund form, extroverted |
| 18 | 1 | OU | 10 | Have better or more weapons (pistols), or surpass in power, verb + gerund |
| 20 | 1 | QI | 6 | Chinese system of physical exercises and breathing control related to tai chi |
| 22 | 1 | QU | 7 | Repeat something written or said by another person exactly, verb/noun |
| 21 | 1 | QU | 8 | Give up |
| 23 | 1 | TI | 7 | Color slightly (…ed with pink), verb/noun |
| 24 | 1 | TI | 7 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 27 | 1 | TO | 4 | Chinese mafia, or BBQ grabber if plural (or used as a verb) |
| 26 | 1 | TO | 6 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 30 | 1 | TO | 6 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 25 | 1 | TO | 7 | Clothes (informal, usually plural), noun; or get dressed up, verb |
| 27 | 1 | TO | 7 | Chinese mafia, or BBQ grabber if plural (or used as a verb) |
| 29 | 1 | TO | 7 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 31 | 1 | TO | 7 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 28 | 1 | TO | 8 | Mouth muscle |
| 33 | 1 | TU | 6 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
| 32 | 1 | TU | 7 | Pull hard, verb; or a boat that pushes ships around a harbor |
| 34 | 1 | TU | 7 | Make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance |
| 35 | 1 | UN | 7 | Bring together |
| 33 | 1 | UN | 8 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
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.