- Letters: I/ACKLOT
- Words: 52
- Points: 213
- 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 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 1 | 1 | AC | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 3 | 1 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 30 | 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 4 | 1 | AL | 6 | Acid opposite in chem. (soluble base) |
| 5 | 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 46 | 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 6 | Rough cotton fabric, or colorful cat |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 7 | Domestic feline hind appendage, or reed (compound) |
| 9 | 1 | CI | 4 | “Hi” or “Bye” in Italian (“… bella”) |
| 10 | 1 | CI | 5 | Short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells; (anatomy) eyelash |
| 11 | 1 | CL | 5 | What you do to a web button or link, verb; or NPR “Car Talk” guy 1 |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 4 | Wind up spirally, or Hamlet’s “mortal …” |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 5 | Central American raccoon |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 5 | Baby or horse upset tummy |
| 17 | 1 | CO | 6 | Relating to sexual intercourse, formal adj. |
| 13 | 1 | CO | 8 | Flap on lower back of jacket; popular politicians have long ones, inverse of formal jacket list word, compound |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 8 | Mixed alcoholic drink (rooster + what dogs wag), compound pangram |
| 19 | 1 | IL | 5 | Hip bone |
| 28 | 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 20 | 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 21 | 1 | IT | 6 | 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑒’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 |
| 22 | 1 | KI | 4 | Strike with foot, verb/noun |
| 23 | 1 | KI | 4 | Murder |
| 24 | 1 | KI | 4 | Greek 1,000 prefix; also an abbr. for 1,000 grams of weight |
| 25 | 1 | KI | 4 | ♂ plaid skirt in Scotland |
| 27 | 1 | LA | 4 | Non-clerical |
| 26 | 1 | LA | 6 | Milk adj. (think acid in yogurt or sore muscles) |
| 27 | 1 | LA | 6 | Non-clerical |
| 29 | 1 | LI | 4 | Tongue off (as an ice cream cone, e.g.), verb/noun |
| 32 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 28 | 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 31 | 1 | LI | 5 | Purple flower or shade |
| 33 | 1 | LO | 4 | A particular point or place |
| 34 | 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 37 | 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 40 | 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 6 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 39 | 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 8 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 38 | 1 | TA | 8 | Formal ♂ dinner jacket worn with a white bowtie, inverse of list word, compound |
| 41 | 1 | TI | 4 | Bloodsucking arachnid that transmits Lyme disease, or mechanical clock sound; noun/verb |
| 43 | 1 | TI | 4 | Polynesian or Maori god, or Polynesian style (… bar or torch, Kon-… raft) |
| 45 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 46 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 44 | 1 | TI | 5 | Indian dish of small pieces of meat or vegetables marinated in a spice mixture |
| 42 | 1 | TI | 8 | Compound word that is both parts of a mechanical clock sound |
| 47 | 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 48 | 1 | TO | 7 | A set of implements |
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.