- Letters: D/ACEJNY
- Words: 48
- Points: 224
- 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 | 4 | Get a top grade on a test |
| 10 | 1 | AC | 6 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 10 | 1 | AC | 7 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 2 | 1 | AD | 5 | Join something to something else |
| 3 | 1 | AD | 6 | Math term for a number which is summed with another (the “1” or “2” in 1 + 2 = 3) |
| 3 | 1 | AD | 7 | Math term for a number which is summed with another (the “1” or “2” in 1 + 2 = 3) |
| 4 | 1 | AD | 9 | Next to; or (geometry) angles having a common vertex and a common side |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 5 | One who carries golf clubs |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 5 | Sweets (cotton…) |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 5 | Walking stick, or striped peppermint Xmas crook |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 6 | Cylindrical metal container, noun; be capable, verb, fire from a job (slang verb) |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 7 | Rhythmic pattern; sequence of chords in music |
| 10 | 1 | CE | 4 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 10 | 1 | CE | 5 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 11 | 1 | DA | 4 | Type of freshwater fish, including redside, northern pearl, and longnose |
| 12 | 1 | DA | 5 | Papa (… long legs, sugar …) |
| 13 | 1 | DA | 5 | Move rhythmically to music, verb/noun |
| 14 | 1 | DA | 5 | Fop, or foppish (“Yankee Doodle …” Cagney film) |
| 13 | 1 | DA | 6 | Move rhythmically to music, verb/noun |
| 15 | 1 | DE | 4 | Not alive |
| 17 | 1 | DE | 4 | College administrator, or actor James of “Rebel Without a Cause” |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 4 | Property ownership paper, noun; or to transfer ownership, verb |
| 24 | 1 | DE | 4 | Refuse to give, grant or admit |
| 20 | 1 | DE | 5 | Rot, verb/noun |
| 15 | 1 | DE | 6 | Not alive |
| 18 | 1 | DE | 6 | Span of ten years |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 6 | Property ownership paper, noun; or to transfer ownership, verb |
| 23 | 1 | DE | 6 | One who plays recorded music, on the radio or at a party, noun/verb |
| 16 | 1 | DE | 7 | Expert marksman, or disc with holes for sailboat lines, compound made from opposite of alive + vision organ |
| 20 | 1 | DE | 7 | Rot, verb/noun |
| 21 | 1 | DE | 7 | Proper (Are you …? Can I come in?), adj. |
| 15 | 1 | DE | 8 | Not alive |
| 23 | 1 | DE | 8 | One who plays recorded music, on the radio or at a party, noun/verb |
| 19 | 1 | DE | 9 | Moral or cultural decline, luxurious self-indulgence |
| 25 | 1 | DY | 4 | Something that consists of 2 parts, from Greek (Kylo Ren & Rey, e.g.) |
| 26 | 1 | DY | 4 | Substance used to change the color of something, noun/verb |
| 27 | 1 | DY | 4 | Unit of force in physics: 1 g / sec.² |
| 28 | 1 | ED | 4 | Water swirl, NOT clothier Bauer |
| 29 | 1 | EN | 5 | Final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story, noun/verb |
| 30 | 1 | EN | 6 | A group of 9, from Greek (such as the 9 Egyptian deities “The Great …”) |
| 31 | 1 | EY | 4 | Organ of vision |
| 32 | 1 | JA | 4 | Hard, typically green stone used for ornaments |
| 33 | 1 | JA | 5 | Tired, bored, or lacking enthusiasm, typically after having had too much |
| 34 | 1 | NA | 4 | Nothing, Spanish |
| 35 | 1 | NE | 4 | Require; verb/noun |
| 35 | 1 | NE | 5 | Require; verb/noun |
| 35 | 1 | NE | 6 | Require; verb/noun |
| 36 | 1 | YE | 6 | Basic monetary unit of Japan, noun; or longing; noun/verb |
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.