- Letters: F/ABDELT
- Words: 58
- Points: 256
- 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 | AF | 7 | Friendly, good-natured, easy to talk to |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 7 | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 3 | 1 | BA | 6 | Bewilder or perplex |
| 3 | 1 | BA | 7 | Bewilder or perplex |
| 4 | 1 | BE | 4 | Cow meat, noun; or strengthen, slang verb; or complaint, slang noun |
| 4 | 1 | BE | 6 | Cow meat, noun; or strengthen, slang verb; or complaint, slang noun |
| 5 | 2 | BE | 6 | Happen to someone (said about something bad) |
| 6 | 1 | DA | 4 | Silly, foolish (British) |
| 8 | 1 | DE | 4 | Unable to hear |
| 11 | 1 | DE | 4 | Neatly skillful, quick & clever (… footwork) |
| 12 | 1 | DE | 5 | English or Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, typically decorated by hand in blue on a white background |
| 18 | 1 | DE | 5 | Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies |
| 9 | 1 | DE | 6 | Win a victory over someone in a battle, verb/noun |
| 10 | 1 | DE | 7 | Let the air out of something |
| 7 | 1 | DE | 8 | Trap consisting of a heavy weight positioned to fall on an animal, compound made from opposite of alive + plummet |
| 9 | 1 | DE | 8 | Win a victory over someone in a battle, verb/noun |
| 10 | 1 | DE | 8 | Let the air out of something |
| 18 | 1 | DE | 8 | Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies |
| 13 | 1 | EF | 6 | Pretentious, flowery, or weak, adj. |
| 15 | 1 | FA | 4 | Gradually become faint |
| 17 | 1 | FA | 4 | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 20 | 1 | FA | 4 | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 14 | 1 | FA | 5 | Short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral |
| 15 | 1 | FA | 5 | Gradually become faint |
| 19 | 1 | FA | 5 | Deadly, adj. (“… Attraction” film) |
| 20 | 1 | FA | 5 | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 14 | 1 | FA | 6 | Short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral |
| 16 | 1 | FA | 7 | Fried chickpea balls often served in pita |
| 21 | 1 | FE | 4 | Achievement requiring great courage, skill, or strength (no easy …), noun |
| 23 | 1 | FE | 4 | Give a meal to |
| 24 | 1 | FE | 4 | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 25 | 1 | FE | 4 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 28 | 1 | FE | 4 | Cloth made by rolling and pressing wool with moisture and/or heat |
| 29 | 1 | FE | 4 | Soft Greek goat cheese, cubed when served |
| 30 | 1 | FE | 4 | Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party” |
| 40 | 1 | FE | 4 | What you cover with a sock |
| 26 | 1 | FE | 5 | ♂, slang (young or little …) |
| 30 | 1 | FE | 5 | Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party” |
| 32 | 1 | FE | 5 | Unborn offspring of a mammal, more advanced than an embryo |
| 22 | 1 | FE | 6 | Weak (…-minded), adj. |
| 25 | 1 | FE | 6 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 31 | 1 | FE | 6 | Condition, noun (in fine …); rhymes with whistling teapot |
| 27 | 1 | FE | 7 | Perform oral sex on a ♂, verb |
| 27 | 1 | FE | 8 | Perform oral sex on a ♂, verb |
| 33 | 1 | FL | 4 | Soft, loose flesh on a person’s body; fat |
| 34 | 1 | FL | 4 | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 37 | 1 | FL | 4 | Hopping insect whose bites cause itching in dogs & cats |
| 38 | 2 | FL | 4 | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 39 | 1 | FL | 5 | Group of ships sailing together, noun; or enema brand; or able to run fast (… of foot) |
| 35 | 1 | FL | 7 | Truck with a level load-carrying area, compound pangram made from level + furniture for sleeping |
| 36 | 1 | FL | 8 | Collapsed arch on your sole; cop nickname; reason to get out of the military draft, compound |
| 41 | 1 | LE | 4 | Nissan electric car; 4 of these on a clover is lucky |
| 43 | 1 | LE | 4 | ←; remaining (only 1 cookie …); or departed |
| 41 | 1 | LE | 6 | Nissan electric car; 4 of these on a clover is lucky |
| 42 | 1 | LE | 7 | Flier passed out on the street, or to pass them out |
| 44 | 1 | TA | 7 | Fine lustrous silk with crisp texture used for formal gowns |
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.