- Letters: I/AELNTZ
- Words: 57
- Points: 262
- Pangrams: 2
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 5 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 8 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 2 | 1 | AN | 4 | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife nickname |
| 43 | 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 3 | 1 | AT | 6 | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 4 | 1 | EL | 5 | Select group that’s superior |
| 5 | 1 | EN | 6 | Involve something as a necessary consequence: "the job …s a lot of hard work" |
| 48 | 1 | EN | 7 | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb |
| 6 | 1 | IN | 5 | Stupid, silly, ridiculous (… questions or comments); adj. |
| 10 | 1 | IN | 5 | Concave belly button, slang |
| 11 | 1 | IN | 5 | Computer chip maker; or what spies collect, abbr. |
| 17 | 1 | IN | 5 | Allow; rent |
| 9 | 1 | IN | 6 | Present from birth (… behavior), adj. |
| 12 | 1 | IN | 6 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 7 | 1 | IN | 7 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 8 | 1 | IN | 8 | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 7 | 1 | IN | 10 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 14 | 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 13 | 1 | LA | 5 | Hawaiian island or porch |
| 16 | 1 | LE | 6 | Bean for soup or curry |
| 15 | 1 | LE | 7 | Merciful, not strict (as a judge or parent, e.g.) |
| 18 | 1 | LI | 4 | Bank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt |
| 20 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 21 | 1 | LI | 4 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 24 | 1 | LI | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 26 | 1 | LI | 4 | Low-calorie or low-fat in ad-speak (Miller … beer) |
| 22 | 1 | LI | 5 | Cloth napkin fabric |
| 21 | 1 | LI | 6 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 23 | 1 | LI | 6 | Mainly brown & gray finch with a reddish breast & forehead (rhymes with the type of piano I have) |
| 25 | 1 | LI | 6 | Horiz. beam across a door or window top |
| 27 | 1 | LI | 6 | Small (Stuart or Chicken …), adj. |
| 28 | 1 | NA | 4 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 29 | 1 | NE | 7 | User of the web or online communities, especially an avid or compulsive one |
| 30 | 1 | NI | 4 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 32 | 1 | NI | 4 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 31 | 1 | NI | 8 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 33 | 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 34 | 1 | TA | 4 | Tin foil for the backs of mirrors |
| 37 | 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 5 | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 38 | 1 | TA | 6 | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 39 | 1 | TA | 9 | Excite someone's senses or desires |
| 40 | 1 | TA | 9 | Blue and violet variety of zoisite (named for the East African country where it was discovered) |
| 41 | 1 | TI | 4 | Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square |
| 42 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 43 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 44 | 1 | TI | 4 | Fork prong |
| 45 | 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 46 | 1 | TI | 5 | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 48 | 1 | TI | 5 | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb |
| 49 | 1 | TI | 6 | Dot above an i or j, or really small amount |
| 47 | 1 | TI | 9 | Stimulate or excite, especially in a sexual way |
| 50 | 1 | ZI | 4 | Periodical, abbr. (last syllable), esp. fan pub |
| 52 | 1 | ZI | 4 | Tubular pasta |
| 51 | 1 | ZI | 6 | Sunflower within the daisy family (what other flower starts with Z?) |
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.