- Letters: C/AEILMT
- Words: 73
- Points: 388
- Pangrams: 3
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 6 | 1 | AC | 4 | Peak, or where Wile E. Coyote orders his supplies |
| 1 | 1 | AC | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 5 | 2 | AC | 6 | Vinegar adj., or acid it contains |
| 3 | 1 | AC | 7 | Enthusiastic public praise |
| 5 | 1 | AC | 7 | Vinegar adj., or acid it contains |
| 4 | 1 | AC | 9 | Become accustomed to new weather or new conditions |
| 7 | 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 12 | 1 | CA | 4 | Tranquil (mood, wind, “the…before the storm”) |
| 13 | 1 | CA | 4 | Arrived, or slang for “had an orgasm,” verb |
| 16 | 1 | CA | 4 | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 14 | 1 | CA | 5 | Humped desert animal |
| 19 | 1 | CA | 6 | Cows & bulls (…prod) |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 7 | Mineral that’s the principal component of marble; similar to milk nutrient mineral |
| 17 | 1 | CA | 7 | Feline ♂ whistle or jeer at passing ♀ (compound) |
| 18 | 1 | CA | 7 | Domestic feline hind appendage, or reed (compound) |
| 15 | 1 | CA | 8 | Flowering Asian shrubs or trees; primary tea source |
| 21 | 1 | CE | 4 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 23 | 1 | CE | 5 | Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument |
| 20 | 1 | CE | 6 | Gluten intolerance disease |
| 22 | 1 | CE | 8 | Convict who shares your room in jail, compound |
| 25 | 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 24 | 1 | CI | 5 | Short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells; (anatomy) eyelash |
| 27 | 1 | CL | 4 | “Happy as a...” bivalve shellfish |
| 26 | 1 | CL | 5 | Assert, an assertion, or a request (… asylum, baggage …) |
| 28 | 1 | CL | 5 | Spike on sports shoes |
| 31 | 1 | CL | 5 | Literary term for a region with ref. to prevailing weather (sunny…, e.g.), NOT scale a ladder |
| 29 | 1 | CL | 7 | Prevailing weather conditions in an area |
| 29 | 1 | CL | 8 | Prevailing weather conditions in an area |
| 30 | 1 | CL | 9 | The most intense, exciting, or important point of a story; or orgasm, noun/verb |
| 32 | 1 | EC | 5 | Stylé, brilliancé, conspicuous succéss; Frénch for “splintér” or “sparklé” |
| 33 | 1 | EC | 8 | Wide-ranging tastes, styles, or ideas; adj. |
| 34 | 1 | EL | 5 | Vote into office |
| 35 | 1 | EL | 6 | Draw out a response, verb |
| 34 | 1 | EL | 7 | Vote into office |
| 37 | 1 | EM | 5 | Master of Ceremonies (sounded-out initials), slang |
| 38 | 1 | EM | 6 | Med that induces vomiting |
| 36 | 1 | EM | 8 | Cause to lose flesh so as to become very thin |
| 39 | 1 | IC | 6 | Frozen water spear from drips |
| 40 | 1 | IL | 5 | Hip bone |
| 49 | 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 41 | 1 | IT | 6 | 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑒’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 |
| 42 | 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 46 | 1 | LA | 4 | Non-clerical |
| 45 | 1 | LA | 6 | Milk adj. (think acid in yogurt or sore muscles) |
| 46 | 1 | LA | 6 | Non-clerical |
| 43 | 1 | LA | 7 | Produce milk, verb (breastfeed a baby) |
| 44 | 1 | LA | 7 | Capillary that absorbs fat in the small intestine |
| 47 | 1 | LA | 7 | Structure such as a pie top crust with strips of dough, e.g. |
| 48 | 1 | LI | 4 | Itchy hair parasites |
| 49 | 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 50 | 1 | LI | 5 | Purple flower or shade |
| 51 | 1 | MA | 4 | Self-defense pepper spray, staff, or spice from a nutmeg |
| 52 | 1 | MA | 5 | Sour-tasting acid, or apple adj. (from Latin) |
| 53 | 1 | MA | 6 | Desire to do evil (Paul Newman “Absence of …” film) |
| 54 | 1 | ME | 5 | Holiest city in Islam, or place of attraction (shopping …) |
| 55 | 1 | ME | 8 | Hard but malleable material such as iron, steel, bronze, etc |
| 56 | 1 | MI | 4 | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 57 | 1 | MI | 4 | 3 blind rodents in rhyme |
| 59 | 1 | MI | 5 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 58 | 1 | MI | 7 | Imitative behavior, adj. (related to above & below words) |
| 62 | 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 65 | 1 | TA | 4 | Mineral in baby powder |
| 60 | 1 | TA | 5 | Musical direction meaning “silent” |
| 61 | 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 63 | 1 | TA | 6 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 64 | 1 | TA | 7 | Perceptible by touch, adj. |
| 63 | 1 | TA | 8 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 66 | 1 | TI | 7 | Small songbirds; plural; starts with “breast” slang & ends in “3 blind” rodent |
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.