- Letters: M/EINOPT
- Words: 64
- Points: 301
- Pangrams: 5
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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 | EM | 4 | Give off (radiation, signals) |
| 3 | 1 | EM | 5 | Ham it up as an actor |
| 1 | 1 | EM | 7 | Renowned (scholar); used with “domain” to mean gov property grab |
| 4 | 1 | EM | 7 | Feeling |
| 5 | 1 | EP | 7 | The perfect example of something |
| 6 | 1 | IM | 8 | About to happen (… demise, e.g.), adj. |
| 52 | 1 | IM | 8 | Strong (…[drinks]—common Jeopardy category); or able to achieve an erection (think IM– prefix) |
| 43 | 1 | IM | 10 | Feeling or showing sorrow & regret for having done wrong, adj.; or a person seeking forgiveness for their sins, noun |
| 7 | 1 | IT | 4 | One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register |
| 8 | 1 | ME | 4 | Encounter (I’m supposed to … him in the park) |
| 9 | 1 | ME | 4 | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 11 | 1 | ME | 4 | Office note abbr. |
| 14 | 1 | ME | 4 | Dispense justice (“… out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 13 | 1 | ME | 6 | Experienced and trusted adviser, usually an older person |
| 10 | 1 | ME | 7 | Souvenir in English; or 2000 thriller about an amnesiac (Guy Pearce) |
| 12 | 1 | ME | 7 | Refer to something briefly and without going into detail, verb/noun |
| 15 | 1 | MI | 4 | A person’s look or expression, NOT an average |
| 16 | 1 | MI | 4 | Silent performer |
| 18 | 1 | MI | 4 | Where you dig for ore, or anti-ship bomb |
| 19 | 1 | MI | 4 | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 22 | 1 | MI | 4 | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 23 | 1 | MI | 4 | Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today) |
| 24 | 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 17 | 1 | MI | 5 | Old stencil duplicator, abbr. (missing –graph suffix) |
| 20 | 1 | MI | 5 | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 21 | 1 | MI | 6 | Underling, as seen in “Despicable Me” |
| 25 | 1 | MI | 6 | Fingerless winter glove for a kid or Sen. Bernie Sanders at inauguration |
| 27 | 1 | MO | 4 | 1–channel sound abbreviation, or glandular fever “kissing disease” abbreviation |
| 30 | 1 | MO | 4 | NASA Apollo missions landed on or circled it |
| 31 | 1 | MO | 4 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point) |
| 32 | 1 | MO | 4 | Sulk, brood; verb |
| 34 | 1 | MO | 4 | Speck of dust |
| 29 | 1 | MO | 5 | 3–card … con game |
| 35 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic & unaccompanied |
| 37 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 26 | 1 | MO | 6 | Very brief period of time (“I’ll be with you in just a …”) |
| 33 | 1 | MO | 6 | Small endearingly sweet child |
| 36 | 1 | MO | 6 | Action by which things change position, or parliamentary proposal; noun |
| 28 | 1 | MO | 8 | Sound that is unchanging in pitch (“She spoke in a … that put me to sleep”) |
| 38 | 1 | NO | 7 | Propose a candidate for election or an honor |
| 39 | 1 | OI | 8 | Medicinal cream for your skin |
| 40 | 1 | OM | 4 | Portent, or Damien’s horror films (“The …”) |
| 41 | 1 | OM | 4 | Leave out, verb |
| 52 | 1 | OM | 10 | Strong (…[drinks]—common Jeopardy category); or able to achieve an erection (think IM– prefix) |
| 42 | 1 | ON | 7 | Former, compound (He's a … football star) |
| 44 | 1 | PE | 6 | Archaic for writer; compound made from “ink stick” & ♂ |
| 45 | 1 | PE | 10 | Trace of an earlier painting beneath paint on a canvas |
| 47 | 1 | PI | 4 | ♂ who controls prostitutes, noun/verb |
| 46 | 1 | PI | 7 | Red sweet pepper, sometimes stuffed into olives, or in the American South, mixed into cheese spread |
| 46 | 1 | PI | 8 | Red sweet pepper, sometimes stuffed into olives, or in the American South, mixed into cheese spread |
| 48 | 1 | PO | 4 | Verse that usually rhymes, from Frost et al. |
| 49 | 1 | PO | 4 | Botany term for apple or pear (think French) |
| 50 | 1 | PO | 4 | Ceremonial public display (Elgar’s “… & Circumstance March” at graduations) |
| 51 | 1 | PO | 6 | Cheerleader accessory |
| 53 | 1 | TE | 4 | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 54 | 1 | TE | 4 | Office worker fill-in, slang abbr. |
| 55 | 2 | TE | 5 | Speed at which a passage of music is played; more generally, pace of an activity |
| 56 | 1 | TE | 5 | Entice (as a donut to a dieter, e.g.), verb |
| 57 | 1 | TE | 8 | Set of rooms within a house, or cheap multi-family bldg. |
| 58 | 1 | TI | 4 | What clocks measure & display |
| 59 | 1 | TO | 4 | Large, heavy book |
| 61 | 1 | TO | 5 | Symbolic object (… pole) |
| 60 | 1 | TO | 6 | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
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.