- Letters: T/CEHIKN
- Words: 55
- Points: 261
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 2 | 1 | CH | 4 | IOU note, Navy memo |
| 3 | 1 | CH | 6 | Fibrous substance forming the exoskeleton of arthropods |
| 4 | 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 6 | 1 | EN | 6 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 5 | 1 | EN | 7 | Friendly understanding between countries, French |
| 7 | 1 | ET | 4 | Engrave metal, glass or stone (…ing); or corrode (…ed away by acid) |
| 8 | 1 | ET | 5 | A set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct |
| 9 | 1 | ET | 6 | Denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality, adj. |
| 10 | 1 | HE | 6 | Full of incessant or frantic activity |
| 11 | 1 | HI | 4 | Clue, suggestion, noun/verb |
| 12 | 1 | HI | 5 | “Psycho” director Alfred nickname, or slang for thumb a ride, verb; or device on a vehicle that allows it to attach a trailer, noun |
| 13 | 1 | HI | 9 | Thumb a ride, compound, ends in above |
| 14 | 1 | IN | 6 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 15 | 1 | IN | 6 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 16 | 1 | IT | 4 | What you scratch (an …) |
| 17 | 1 | KE | 5 | Brightly colored, banded material made in Ghana |
| 18 | 1 | KE | 5 | 2-masted sailboat, homophone of “nab” synonym |
| 21 | 1 | KI | 4 | Flying toy with a string & tail |
| 22 | 1 | KI | 4 | Close friends, archaic (… & kin) |
| 23 | 1 | KI | 6 | Young cat |
| 19 | 1 | KI | 7 | Relating to motion (… energy), adj. |
| 20 | 1 | KI | 7 | Food-prep room (perfect pangram) + small version of it (pangram) |
| 20 | 1 | KI | 11 | Food-prep room (perfect pangram) + small version of it (pangram) |
| 24 | 1 | KN | 4 | Make a scarf or blanket with yarn & needles, verb |
| 25 | 1 | NE | 7 | Often colorful & patterned shirt accessory worn with a suit, compound, starts with above |
| 29 | 1 | NI | 4 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 26 | 1 | NI | 5 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 27 | 1 | NI | 8 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 28 | 1 | NI | 9 | XC in Roman numerals |
| 27 | 1 | NI | 10 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 30 | 1 | TE | 4 | Last word in name of Cambridge school M.I.T., abbr. |
| 31 | 1 | TE | 4 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 36 | 1 | TE | 4 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 32 | 1 | TE | 5 | What you use to chew, plural |
| 34 | 1 | TE | 5 | Between nine and eleven |
| 35 | 1 | TE | 5 | Recent Christopher Nolan time-travel film, or a principle or belief |
| 30 | 1 | TE | 6 | Last word in name of Cambridge school M.I.T., abbr. |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 6 | When the things you use to chew start to emerge, you chew on everything, and you drool all the time |
| 37 | 1 | TH | 4 | Archaic form of “you” |
| 38 | 1 | TH | 4 | At that time, or next; adv. (not always, but every now & …) |
| 42 | 1 | TH | 4 | Skinny, adj. (… Mints) |
| 40 | 1 | TH | 5 | Wide (slices of bread, e.g.), adj. + add flour to sauce, or make wider, verb (perfect pangram) (2 words) |
| 43 | 1 | TH | 5 | Yours, archaic singular |
| 44 | 1 | TH | 5 | Use your brain to ponder something, verb |
| 39 | 1 | TH | 6 | (Formal or archaic adv.) from a place previously mentioned, or as a result (…-forth means “from that time forward") |
| 40 | 1 | TH | 7 | Wide (slices of bread, e.g.), adj. + add flour to sauce, or make wider, verb (perfect pangram) (2 words) |
| 41 | 1 | TH | 7 | Copse; dense stand of bushes, shrubs, or trees (change last letter in above verb) |
| 45 | 1 | TI | 4 | Bloodsucking arachnid that transmits Lyme disease, or mechanical clock sound; noun/verb |
| 47 | 1 | TI | 4 | Polynesian or Maori god, or Polynesian style (… bar or torch, Kon-… raft) |
| 49 | 1 | TI | 4 | Fork prong |
| 50 | 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 48 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 51 | 1 | TI | 5 | Give 10% of your income to the Church |
| 46 | 1 | TI | 6 | Entry card for events & travel, or illegal parking citation |
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.