- Letters: T/AILMOP
- Words: 56
- Points: 210
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 7 | 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 4 | 1 | AT | 4 | Smallest unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb) |
| 53 | 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 3 | 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 44 | 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 5 | 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 6 | 1 | LA | 6 | Portable computer |
| 8 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 9 | 1 | LI | 5 | Size, speed, or amount restriction |
| 10 | 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 11 | 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 13 | 1 | MA | 4 | Convert grain for brewing (…–ed milk), noun/verb |
| 12 | 1 | MA | 7 | Dancing or gymnastics tights, ♀ 1–piece bathing suit, or bike racing jersey; a French word for shirt |
| 15 | 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 14 | 1 | MI | 7 | (Related to above) armed vigilante group; 2nd Amendment's “Well-regulated…” |
| 16 | 1 | MO | 4 | Water ditch surrounding a castle |
| 17 | 1 | MO | 4 | Shed feathers, hair, or skin; verb |
| 18 | 1 | MO | 4 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point) |
| 19 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 20 | 1 | OM | 4 | Leave out, verb |
| 21 | 1 | OP | 6 | Best conditions for some purpose |
| 21 | 1 | OP | 7 | Best conditions for some purpose |
| 24 | 1 | PA | 5 | Outdoor terrace adjoining a house, from Spanish (… furniture) |
| 22 | 1 | PA | 7 | Roof of the mouth |
| 23 | 1 | PA | 8 | Resembling a royal residence (Buckingham?); spacious & splendid, adj. |
| 27 | 1 | PI | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 25 | 1 | PI | 5 | Airplane driver |
| 26 | 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 28 | 1 | PI | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 30 | 1 | PL | 4 | Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym |
| 31 | 1 | PL | 4 | Scheme, noun or verb (Roth’s “The … Against America”); or storyline in fiction |
| 29 | 1 | PL | 5 | Hair braid, noun/verb |
| 32 | 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 33 | 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 37 | 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 38 | 1 | TA | 4 | Pack down (start of Florida city on a bay) |
| 39 | 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 40 | 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 41 | 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 34 | 1 | TA | 8 | Red light at back of car, compound |
| 43 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 44 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 45 | 1 | TI | 6 | Rhyming compound adj. that means “of the very best quality” (in … condition) (compound) |
| 42 | 1 | TI | 7 | Common bland-tasting fish |
| 46 | 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 47 | 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 51 | 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 52 | 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 54 | 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 49 | 1 | TO | 6 | Ketchup & ragù fruit |
| 50 | 1 | TO | 6 | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
| 48 | 1 | TO | 9 | Smaller, green Mexican husk variety of below 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.