- Letters: O/ACNPTU
- Words: 52
- Points: 223
- 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 | AC | 7 | $ held for you, (bank, savings, checking…, e.g.) |
| 1 | 1 | AC | 10 | $ held for you, (bank, savings, checking…, e.g.) |
| 3 | 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 46 | 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 4 | 1 | AU | 4 | Car, abbr., or “self” prefix |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 4 | Mafia boss, or moveable bar on a guitar |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 5 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 5 | Section of a long poem |
| 12 | 1 | CA | 5 | Castrated chicken fattened for eating |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 6 | “I am unable to do so,” formally |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 6 | Swiss “state,” or upper inner corner of a flag (blue field with white stars here) |
| 13 | 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 20 | 1 | CO | 4 | Chicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (…ed up) |
| 22 | 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 26 | 1 | CO | 4 | Sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government |
| 2 | 1 | CO | 5 | Do something |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 21 | 1 | CO | 5 | Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose |
| 25 | 1 | CO | 5 | Tally, verb; or title for Dracula & Monte Cristo, noun |
| 17 | 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 23 | 1 | CO | 6 | Avoid doing something you're supposed to do, slang compound |
| 24 | 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 6 | “Save 50¢ on Charmin” with this; you used to clip them |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 7 | Tropical fruit in Mounds & Piña Colada |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 19 | 1 | CO | 7 | Get in touch with, verb; or list of people’s numbers on your phone (if plural), noun |
| 28 | 1 | CU | 6 | Cardboard person (how you make one), or spy intermediary |
| 29 | 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 30 | 1 | NO | 4 | In grammar, a person, place or thing |
| 32 | 1 | OC | 6 | Arc of a circle that’s 1/8 of circumference, or obsolete navigation device |
| 31 | 1 | OC | 8 | Live in or have a business in a house or building; or (said of a military force) control a conquered country |
| 33 | 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 34 | 1 | OU | 6 | Results of computer processing |
| 36 | 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 39 | 1 | PO | 4 | Push your lower lip out because you're annoyed |
| 37 | 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 38 | 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 35 | 1 | PO | 7 | Temp floating bridge |
| 40 | 1 | PU | 6 | The act of retiring a batter or runner (baseball) |
| 41 | 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 42 | 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 44 | 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car-…) |
| 45 | 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 49 | 1 | TO | 4 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 48 | 1 | TO | 6 | Froot Loops mascot Sam; bird with large colorful beak |
| 43 | 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “...& Fugue in D Minor”) |
| 47 | 1 | TO | 7 | Lightweight jacket, or final layer of paint; compound |
| 50 | 1 | UN | 4 | Archaic preposition (Handel’s Messiah “For … us a child is born”) |
| 51 | 1 | UP | 4 | Fairy tale-starting preposition (“Once … a time”) |
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.