- Letters: M/AILPRT
- Words: 47
- Points: 185
- 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 | AI | 7 | Letters transported by plane (compound) |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 5 | Warning (bell) |
| 3 | 1 | AR | 6 | Space underneath your shoulder, where your deodorant goes, compound |
| 4 | 1 | IM | 4 | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 5 | 1 | IM | 6 | Weaken or damage something, especially a human function (visual …) |
| 6 | 1 | IM | 6 | African antelope or Chevy sedan |
| 7 | 1 | IM | 6 | Bestow |
| 31 | 1 | IM | 9 | Oncomplete |
| 8 | 1 | LA | 4 | Tibetan Buddhist monk (Dalai …) |
| 9 | 1 | LA | 4 | Illuminating device |
| 10 | 1 | LI | 4 | Peru capital, or bean |
| 12 | 1 | LI | 4 | Walk with a bad leg, verb; or soggy noodle adj. |
| 11 | 1 | LI | 5 | Size, speed, or amount restriction |
| 13 | 1 | LL | 5 | S Am camel |
| 14 | 1 | MA | 4 | Letters you get or send |
| 15 | 1 | MA | 4 | Permanently injure |
| 17 | 1 | MA | 4 | Shopping center with many stores under one roof |
| 18 | 1 | MA | 4 | Convert grain for brewing (…–ed milk), noun/verb |
| 19 | 1 | MA | 4 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 22 | 1 | MA | 4 | Old-timey schoolteacher honorific |
| 23 | 1 | MA | 4 | Store (K–, Wal–) |
| 19 | 1 | MA | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 20 | 1 | MA | 6 | Vertebrate class that has hair, milk, & live birth |
| 16 | 1 | MA | 7 | Ague, or swamp fever from mosquitoes |
| 21 | 1 | MA | 7 | Relating to the relationship of wedded couples (… bliss) |
| 24 | 1 | MA | 7 | Relating to the armed forces (the dictator imposed … law) |
| 16 | 1 | MA | 8 | Ague, or swamp fever from mosquitoes |
| 26 | 1 | MI | 4 | Wheat or pepper grinder |
| 28 | 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 27 | 1 | MI | 6 | Relating to the bicuspid heart valve between the left atrium & left ventricle, adj. |
| 25 | 1 | MI | 7 | (Related to above) armed vigilante group; 2nd Amendment's “Well-regulated …” |
| 29 | 1 | PA | 4 | Underside of hand, or coconut tree (2nd syllable of above) |
| 30 | 1 | PA | 5 | S Am treeless grassland |
| 32 | 1 | PI | 4 | ♂ who controls prostitutes, noun/verb |
| 33 | 1 | PR | 4 | Baby carriage in Britsheak |
| 34 | 1 | PR | 4 | Stiffly formal and respectable (… and proper) |
| 36 | 1 | PR | 5 | Spend time making minor adjustments to one's hair, makeup, or clothes |
| 35 | 1 | PR | 6 | Original or primitive; or Arthur Janov's scream |
| 37 | 1 | RA | 4 | Sloped walkway |
| 38 | 1 | RA | 7 | Defensive wall of a castle or walled city, with a wide flat top (what Trump said the Continental Army rammed before taking over the airports) |
| 41 | 1 | TA | 4 | Pack down (start of Florida city on a bay) |
| 40 | 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese rich, naturally fermented soy sauce |
| 42 | 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 39 | 1 | TA | 8 | Red light at back of car, compound |
| 43 | 1 | TR | 4 | People mover in Disney parks, parking lots, & cities |
| 45 | 1 | TR | 4 | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
| 44 | 1 | TR | 5 | Walk heavily or noisily, verb; or vagrant, noun; or promiscuous woman, derogatory slang 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.