- Letters: P/ABELNO
- Words: 64
- Points: 243
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | AP | 5 | Sleep breathing disorder |
| 1 | AP | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 3 | AP | 6,8,10 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 1 | AP | 5 | 1 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away |
| 1 | BE | 8 | Stick for supporting legume plants, or slang for tall & thin person, compound pangram |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Fast jazz style (“Cowboy …” anime series) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Car horn sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Cover a profanity with a sound (… out) |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Electronic tone similar to profanity cover sound; or mistake (usually with –ER); or a weakly hit fly ball in baseball that is too high for the infielders and too short for the outfielders |
| 1 | EL | 5 | Run away to marry |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Jacket edge that’s folded back |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Scruff of the neck |
| 1 | NA | 8 | Flaky rectangular pastry with a sweet filling; or a French general who lost at Waterloo |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Tide with least difference between low & high water |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Slang negation |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Gemstone from Australia, October birthstone |
| 2 | OP | 4,8 | Pull on a door handle to gain admittance, verb/adj. |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Song of praise or triumph |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 1 | PA | 4 | White-faced, NOT a bucket |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 1 | PA | 8 | So intense (a feeling or atmosphere) as to seem almost physical (a … sense of loss), or can be felt by touch |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Single sheet of window glass |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Flat component set into the surface of a door or wall; flat surface with instruments (control ...) |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Pontiff adj. |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Repeated bell ringing or laughter |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Small rock (… Beach golf course near Monterey, CA) |
| 2 | PE | 4,8 | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Backside of a hammer |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Relating to punishment (law) |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Low-ranking worker, drudge |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Humanity, or celeb mag with annual “sexiest man” |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Flat geometric surface; or short for flying vehicle |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Commoner, slang insult, from Latin |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Military academy cadet, slang |
| 1 | PL | 5 | Puerto Rican music having a highly syncopated rhythm and often satirical lyrics |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Large dark green mild chili pepper, |
| 1 | PO | 4 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Dusty flower reproductive emission that causes allergies |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Unleavened cornbread, often Southern or Native American |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Swimming venue |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
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.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
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