- Letters: P/ADEHOT
- Words: 62
- Points: 254
- 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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| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | AD | 5,7 | Get used to a new situation, or modify for new use |
| 1 | AD | 5 | Very skilled or proficient at something, adj./noun |
| 3 | AD | 5,7,7 | Legally take responsibility for someone else's child; choose to take up, follow, or use |
| 1 | AP | 4 | Large primate without a tail, including gorilla, chimpanzees, and orangutans, noun/verb |
| 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 1 | DA | 6 | Fish by letting the fly bob lightly on the water |
| 1 | DE | 4 | Not shallow |
| 1 | DE | 5 | Place to store large quantities of equipment or food; or a railroad or bus station |
| 1 | DE | 5 | How far under the water you are (… charge) |
| 2 | DO | 4,5 | Simpleton, or slang for drugs |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 1 | EP | 5 | Form of lyric poem written in couplets, in which a long line is followed by a shorter one, from Greek |
| 1 | HE | 6 | Body part that holds your brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Stack in a disorderly pile, verb/noun |
| 1 | HE | 6 | A group of seven |
| 2 | HO | 4,6 | O you jump through or spin around your waist (hula …) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Move by jumping on one foot |
| 2 | HO | 4,5 | Fervently wish (I … it doesn’t rain today) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Asian dish similar to fondue; AKA steamboat (compound) |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Sunfish, kingfish, Jerusalem haddock, or redfin ocean pan; close to TV queen with her OWN network & magazine |
| 1 | OP | 5 | Make a choice from a range of possibilities (he …ed for the red one) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Thick piece of soft material used to cushion something, noun/verb |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand, verb; or simple and somewhat glib or unconvincing, adj. (… answer) |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Chopped liver (… de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Walking or bike trail |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Outer shell of small green spherical veggies, usually 2 words |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Urinate, slang |
| 2 | PE | 4,6 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Energy, liveliness, noun/verb |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Animal kept in your house, noun/verb |
| 1 | PH | 4 | “Excellent” in hip-hop slang, NOT obese |
| 1 | PH | 5 | Picture made using a camera, abbr. |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Author of verse |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Christopher Robbins’ Winnie The … Bear |
| 2 | PO | 4,6 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Make a light explosive sound (… the cork, … the question) |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 1 | PO | 6 | (Historical or British) sweet or pretty child, or voodoo doll |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Large container for cooking (…s and pans); or marijuana, slang |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Heavy marijuana user, slang, compound pangram |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Touch lightly, verb/noun, or spout for water or beer |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 2 | TA | 4,5 | Adhesive strip |
| 1 | TE | 6 | Vessel for heating water to pour on crushed Camellia sinensis leaves to make a hot drink, compound (I'm a little …, short and stout) |
| 2 | TE | 5,6 | Native Am conical hut; 2 spellings |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Opposite of bottom |
| 2 | TO | 4,5 | Small grayish slender-bodied shark, or mango tree grove; homophone of grayish-brown color |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. 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