- Letters: P/ABCELO
- Words: 59
- Points: 219
- 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 | AL | 6 | S Am mammal similar to but smaller than a llama |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 7 | Word for a sweet, fizzy alcoholic drink |
| 5 | 1 | AP | 5 | 1 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away |
| 25 | 1 | AP | 5 | Walk back & forth anxiously, verb; or speed of an activity, noun |
| 3 | 1 | AP | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 4 | 1 | AP | 6 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 4 | 1 | AP | 8 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 4 | 1 | AP | 10 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 7 | 1 | BE | 4 | Car horn sound, noun/verb |
| 6 | 1 | BE | 5 | Fast jazz style (“Cowboy …” anime series) |
| 8 | 1 | BL | 5 | Cover a profanity with a sound (… out) |
| 9 | 1 | BL | 5 | Electronic tone similar to profanity cover sound, or mistake (usually with –ER) |
| 11 | 1 | CA | 4 | Superhero back covering, or land that juts into water (… Cod) |
| 12 | 1 | CA | 4 | Mafia boss, or moveable bar on a guitar |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 7 | Fit to do or achieve a specified thing |
| 13 | 1 | CL | 4 | Applaud |
| 14 | 1 | CL | 4 | Sound of a horse’s hooves on a hard surface |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 4 | Chicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (…ed up) |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 4 | Deal effectively with something difficult |
| 17 | 1 | EL | 5 | Run away to marry |
| 18 | 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 19 | 1 | LA | 5 | Jacket edge that’s folded back |
| 20 | 1 | LE | 4 | Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | LO | 4 | Closed curve |
| 23 | 1 | LO | 4 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 21 | 1 | LO | 6 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 24 | 1 | OP | 4 | Gemstone from Australia, October birthstone |
| 25 | 1 | PA | 4 | Walk back & forth anxiously, verb; or speed of an activity, noun |
| 29 | 1 | PA | 4 | White-faced, NOT a bucket |
| 31 | 1 | PA | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 32 | 1 | PA | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 34 | 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 30 | 1 | PA | 5 | Diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans |
| 35 | 1 | PA | 5 | Pontiff adj. |
| 26 | 1 | PA | 6 | Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish |
| 27 | 1 | PA | 6 | Official residence of a sovereign, archbishop, or other exalted person |
| 28 | 1 | PA | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 33 | 1 | PA | 8 | So intense (a feeling or atmosphere) as to seem almost physical (a … sense of loss), or can be felt by touch |
| 37 | 1 | PE | 4 | Repeated bell ringing or laughter |
| 39 | 1 | PE | 4 | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 40 | 1 | PE | 4 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 36 | 1 | PE | 5 | Tranquility |
| 38 | 1 | PE | 6 | Small rock (… Beach golf course near Monterey, CA) |
| 41 | 1 | PE | 6 | Humanity, or celeb mag with annual “sexiest man” |
| 39 | 1 | PE | 8 | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 36 | 1 | PE | 9 | Tranquility |
| 44 | 1 | PL | 4 | Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence |
| 45 | 1 | PL | 4 | Commoner, slang insult, from Latin |
| 47 | 1 | PL | 4 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 42 | 1 | PL | 5 | A particular position or point in space, noun/verb |
| 46 | 1 | PL | 5 | Military academy cadet, slang |
| 43 | 1 | PL | 7 | Harmless medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit of the patient, pangram |
| 48 | 1 | PO | 4 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 49 | 1 | PO | 4 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 50 | 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 51 | 1 | PO | 4 | Swimming venue |
| 52 | 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 53 | 1 | PO | 4 | Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 54 | 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
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.