- Letters: C/AILMOY
- Words: 52
- Points: 218
- 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 | AC | 7 | Enthusiastic public praise |
| 31 | 1 | AC | 7 | Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 4 | Tranquil (mood, wind, “the…before the storm”) |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 4 | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 4 | Clothing that helps you hide, slang abbr. |
| 4 | 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 6 | Rough cotton fabric, or colorful cat |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 6 | Tranquil (mood, wind, “the…before the storm”) |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 8 | Caribbean veg dish |
| 12 | 1 | CI | 4 | “Hi” or “Bye” in Italian (“… bella”) |
| 13 | 1 | CI | 5 | Short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells; (anatomy) eyelash |
| 15 | 1 | CL | 4 | bivalve shellfish (happy as a …) |
| 16 | 1 | CL | 4 | Dirt used to make ceramic pots, or boxer Ali former name |
| 18 | 1 | CL | 4 | Sicken with sweetness |
| 14 | 1 | CL | 5 | Assert, an assertion, or a request (… asylum, baggage …) |
| 15 | 1 | CL | 6 | bivalve shellfish (happy as a …) |
| 17 | 1 | CL | 6 | Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals |
| 19 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad |
| 20 | 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 23 | 1 | CO | 4 | Wind up spirally, or Hamlet’s “mortal …” |
| 24 | 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor |
| 26 | 1 | CO | 4 | Prolonged unconscious state |
| 29 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 21 | 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 22 | 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 25 | 1 | CO | 5 | Baby or horse upset tummy |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 5 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 28 | 1 | CO | 5 | Curly punctuation mark that separates phrases |
| 30 | 1 | CO | 5 | Reluctant to give details, especially about something regarded as sensitive |
| 29 | 1 | CO | 6 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 7 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 27 | 1 | CO | 9 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 31 | 1 | CY | 6 | Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order |
| 31 | 1 | CY | 8 | Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order |
| 31 | 1 | CY | 10 | Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order |
| 32 | 1 | IC | 5 | Frozen water |
| 33 | 1 | IL | 5 | Hip bone |
| 34 | 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 35 | 1 | LA | 4 | Non-clerical |
| 35 | 1 | LA | 6 | Non-clerical |
| 36 | 1 | LI | 5 | Purple flower or shade |
| 38 | 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 39 | 1 | LO | 4 | A particular point or place |
| 37 | 1 | LO | 5 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 37 | 1 | LO | 7 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 40 | 1 | MA | 5 | Sour-tasting acid, or apple adj. (from Latin) |
| 41 | 1 | MI | 4 | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 42 | 1 | MI | 5 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
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.