- Letters: D/ACIORT
- Words: 52
- Points: 248
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | AC | 4 | Below 7 on the pH scale (amino …, sulfuric …, hydrochloric …) |
| 3 | 1 | AC | 5 | Strong & unpleasant taste or smell, adj. |
| 1 | 1 | AC | 6 | Treaty, or large Honda sedan; noun; or agree (we are in …), verb |
| 2 | 1 | AC | 6 | Below 7 on the pH scale (amino …, sulfuric …, hydrochloric …) |
| 4 | 1 | AD | 6 | Someone who’s hooked on drugs |
| 5 | 1 | AD | 6 | Clever with hands or mind, adj. (from French) |
| 8 | 1 | AR | 4 | Dry (climate or land), adj. |
| 7 | 1 | AR | 5 | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 6 | 1 | AR | 7 | Region or scene of simple pleasure or quiet, city near LA, or mountainous southern region of Greece |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 4 | Thing used to play poker & bridge, noun; or ask for ID as proof of age before entry |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 6 | Exercise that works the heart, slang abbr. |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 7 | Heart, medical adj. (… arrest) |
| 13 | 1 | CA | 7 | Artery that carries blood to the head and neck, noun/adj. |
| 12 | 1 | CA | 8 | Heart-shaped curve in math |
| 14 | 1 | CI | 6 | Noisy 17–year insect |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 4 | Concluding event, remark, or section, especially in music |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 4 | Unit of firewood, or a string-like object (umbilical, vocal, electric …) |
| 17 | 1 | CO | 7 | Bullfight, Spanish (… de toros) |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 8 | Hallway |
| 19 | 1 | DA | 4 | Spike thrown at a board |
| 20 | 1 | DA | 4 | Facts & stats, computer info, or Star Trek Next Gen android |
| 25 | 1 | DI | 4 | Soil |
| 22 | 1 | DI | 5 | (Usually singular) formal pronouncements, or adages, Latin plural |
| 26 | 1 | DI | 5 | “Same here” or “same as above” |
| 24 | 1 | DI | 6 | Person over-inclined to instruct others |
| 23 | 1 | DI | 8 | Lay down authoritatively; prescribe; say words that someone will type |
| 24 | 1 | DI | 8 | Person over-inclined to instruct others |
| 21 | 1 | DI | 9 | Accent or other pronunciation mark on a letter, NOT a fault-finder |
| 28 | 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or idiot, slang |
| 30 | 1 | DO | 4 | Room or bldg. entrance |
| 27 | 1 | DO | 6 | “Who” travels in a TARDIS, or physician + degree they & professors hold |
| 29 | 1 | DO | 6 | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 31 | 1 | DO | 6 | Mahimahi; or South American freshwater fish with a golden body and red fins |
| 32 | 1 | DO | 6 | “Old & feeble” insult used by N Korea about our former pres. |
| 33 | 1 | DR | 4 | Mild exclamation of annoyance used by cartoon villains, anagram of spike thrown at board |
| 34 | 1 | DR | 5 | Star Wars robot (R2D2, C3PO, BB–8), or last syllable of Google phone OS (An…) |
| 35 | 1 | ID | 5 | Dunce (Green Day’s “American…” album, & show) |
| 35 | 1 | ID | 7 | Dunce (Green Day’s “American…” album, & show) |
| 36 | 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 |
| 37 | 1 | OD | 4 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 42 | 1 | RA | 4 | Sudden attack, as in “air” or police;” or insect spray |
| 38 | 1 | RA | 5 | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 40 | 1 | RA | 5 | AM/FM music & talk device in car & home |
| 41 | 1 | RA | 5 | Distance from a point on a circle to the center |
| 39 | 1 | RA | 8 | Give off heat or light in all directions; or spread out in all directions |
| 43 | 1 | RO | 4 | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 44 | 1 | RO | 4 | Large crucifix above altar, anagram of bldg. entrance |
| 45 | 1 | TO | 4 | Frog cousin |
| 46 | 1 | TO | 6 | Burning hot (climate or affair), adj. |
| 47 | 1 | TO | 6 | Donut shape |
| 48 | 1 | TR | 4 | Step on; snake flag motto "Don't … on me" |
| 49 | 1 | TR | 5 | Group of 3 |
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.