- Letters: O/ABCEKL
- Words: 54
- Points: 220
- Pangrams: 3
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AL | 9 | Distribute (resources) for a particular purpose |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sunburn gel from “… vera” plant |
| 1 | BA | 8 | Valve that automatically fills a tank after liquid has been drawn from it, compound |
| 1 | BA | 6 | African tree |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Group of like-minded voters |
| 2 | BL | 5,9 | large solid piece of hard material, especially rock, stone, or wood, typically with flat surfaces on each side, noun; or prevent from moving in a particular direction, verb |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Brit & Aussie slang for guy |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Italian game similar to lawn bowling |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Dark German lager, or chicken sound |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Thrown weighted string weapon |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Western string tie |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 2 | BO | 4,8 | Printed novel, noun; or reserve something, verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Caribbean veg dish |
| 1 | CE | 9 | Large building subdivided into separate prison cells |
| 1 | CE | 5 | Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument (also Pablo Casals') |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Sleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term |
| 1 | CL | 5 | It tells time |
| 1 | CO | 4 | “Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Repair or make, especially shoes; make or put together roughly or hastily |
| 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Rooster, or slang for penis |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Edible bivalve marine mollusk with a pretty shell, or slang for your core (it warms the…s of my heart) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi rival, or slang abbr. for drug people snort |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor |
| 2 | CO | 4,8 | Prep or heat food |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Bound, printed recipes (e.g. Fanny Farmer’s), compound |
| 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 1 | KA | 5 | Grilled meat or veg on a stick, spelling var. |
| 1 | KO | 5 | Tree climbing marsupial “bear” |
| 1 | KO | 4 | Small African tree with nuts that flavor Pepsi |
| 1 | KO | 4 | Crazy or eccentric person, NOT a chef |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 1 | LO | 5 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Place where something happens (exotic …) |
| 2 | LO | 4,8 | A door fastener with a key, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Direct one’s gaze toward someone or something, verb/noun |
| 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
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