- Letters: R/ADMOPU
- Words: 51
- Points: 182
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AM | 5 | Love in French, noun |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 1 | AR | 6 | Warship fleet (Spanish one defeated by England in 1588) |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Protective covering against weapons (suit of …) |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Pleasant smell (baking bread, e.g.) |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Plant genus with → shaped leaves, often called … lilies |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Supernatural glow encircling a person |
| 1 | AU | 6 | Polar lights (… Borealis) |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Room or bldg. entrance |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Mahimahi; or South American freshwater fish with a golden body and red fins |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Student housing abbr. |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Gloomy appearance or manner |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Scottish whisky serving size, ⅛ oz. |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Serious or exciting play, show, film, or events (Don’t be such a … queen!) |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Sag, or hang limply |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Let fall, verb; or a tiny amount of liquid, noun |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Rhythm instrument you play with sticks, noun/verb |
| 1 | DU | 5 | Hard wheat used in pasta |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Search for things to steal or people to attack (think pirates, gangs, or armies); from Old French "rascal" |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Old-timey schoolteacher honorific |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Othello (“The …”), noun; or to tie up a boat, verb |
| 1 | MU | 7 | Where you take off your shoes after playing outside (compound) |
| 1 | MU | 6 | Soft, indistinct sound (noun/verb) |
| 1 | OD | 4 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Government-owned hotel in Spain |
| 1 | PA | 8 | Release people or supplies from a plane by ‘chute |
| 1 | PA | 8 | Married person’s mistress (from French ‘by love’) |
| 1 | PO | 9 | Upswept hairstyle named after a mistress of French King Louis XV, pangram |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Lacking $, or worse than ideal |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Flow rapidly in a steady stream |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Baby carriage in Britspeak |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Poke, nudge, or spur (reluctant person or cattle) |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Formal dance held in springtime |
| 1 | PR | 5 | A piece of publicity or advertising, especially in the form of a short film or video |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Support (… up), verb; on-stage object or ballot initiative abbr., noun |
| 1 | PR | 5 | Feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of your own achievements, or those of someone close to you |
| 1 | PU | 4 | Happy cat rumbling sound |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Covered porch, or hotel brand |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Sloped walkway |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Stick for loading a gun, or adj. for rigid posture (compound) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 1 | RO | 7 | Diagram that shows where highways and towns are (compound) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Wander, or use your phone on another network |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Play roughly and energetically, verb/noun |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Large crucifix above altar, anagram of bldg. entrance |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Chamber of a house (kitchen, bed-…, bath-…), noun/verb |
| 1 | RU | 5 | Scuttlebutt, gossip (… has it) |
| 1 | RU | 4 | Butt |
| 1 | UP | 6 | Furor, turmoil |
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