- Letters: B/DEFLOW
- Words: 53
- Points: 247
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | BE | 4 | Cow meat, noun; or strengthen, slang verb; or complaint, slang noun |
| 5 | 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 6 | 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 8 | 1 | BE | 5 | Underneath (“Look out …!”) |
| 28 | 1 | BE | 5 | Tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night |
| 1 | 1 | BE | 6 | Furniture you sleep on |
| 3 | 1 | BE | 6 | Cow meat, noun; or strengthen, slang verb; or complaint, slang noun |
| 4 | 1 | BE | 6 | Happen to someone (said about something bad) |
| 5 | 1 | BE | 6 | It rings |
| 7 | 1 | BE | 6 | Make a roaring shout; singular of “I Dream of Jeannie” doc |
| 28 | 1 | BE | 7 | Tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night |
| 7 | 1 | BE | 8 | Make a roaring shout; singular of “I Dream of Jeannie” doc |
| 2 | 1 | BE | 9 | Person who shares sleep furniture with another; or a person or thing allied or closely connected with another ("the treaty will make strange …s of a number of enemies"), pangram noun |
| 9 | 1 | BL | 4 | Lose blood from your body |
| 10 | 1 | BL | 4 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 12 | 2 | BL | 4 | What the wind does, or what you do to extinguish birthday candles |
| 9 | 1 | BL | 5 | Lose blood from your body |
| 11 | 1 | BL | 5 | What hearts pump, noun + adj. |
| 10 | 1 | BL | 7 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 11 | 1 | BL | 7 | What hearts pump, noun + adj. |
| 15 | 1 | BO | 4 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 17 | 1 | BO | 4 | 𝐔𝐧𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐚𝐝𝐣. |
| 18 | 1 | BO | 4 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 19 | 1 | BO | 4 | Western string tie |
| 21 | 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 26 | 1 | BO | 4 | Dish for cereal & soup, noun; or trying to knock down pins in an alley |
| 15 | 1 | BO | 5 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 16 | 1 | BO | 5 | Critic’s slang adj. for a wildly successful show or film |
| 20 | 1 | BO | 5 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 24 | 1 | BO | 5 | Bend at the waist, especially to acknowledge applause |
| 25 | 1 | BO | 5 | (Usually plural) intestine, or the deepest area of something |
| 13 | 1 | BO | 6 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 14 | 1 | BO | 6 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 22 | 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 23 | 1 | BO | 6 | Large amount of money, usually gotten illegally; rhymes with absent-minded drawing |
| 26 | 1 | BO | 6 | Dish for cereal & soup, noun; or trying to knock down pins in an alley |
| 27 | 1 | BO | 6 | Rhyming compound bark of a cartoon dog |
| 14 | 1 | BO | 7 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 29 | 1 | DW | 5 | Boring, studious, or socially inept person |
| 30 | 1 | EB | 5 | Recede, especially |
| 31 | 1 | EL | 5 | Arm joint, or macaroni shape |
| 31 | 1 | EL | 7 | Arm joint, or macaroni shape |
| 32 | 1 | FE | 6 | Weak (…-minded), adj. |
| 33 | 1 | FO | 6 | Chain attached to a watch for carrying, noun; or deceitfully attempt to satisfy someone by giving them something inferior, verb |
| 35 | 1 | LO | 4 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 36 | 1 | LO | 4 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 35 | 1 | LO | 5 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 34 | 1 | LO | 6 | Throw or hit a ball high in the air, verb/noun |
| 37 | 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 38 | 1 | WE | 6 | What a spider spins, noun; or structured similarly to what a spider spins (ducks have …ed feet) |
| 39 | 1 | WO | 6 | Teeter, as an uneven table |
| 39 | 1 | WO | 7 | Teeter, as an uneven table |
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.