- Letters: P/AEIMNT
- Words: 67
- Points: 316
- 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 | AP | 6,6 | Tarzan the … |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Bee-related adj. |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Sleep breathing disorder |
| 1 | AP | 8 | Hunger (the child always has a healthy … before meals); the word also has an obscure adjectival form that may appear in some puzzles |
| 1 | AT | 7 | Make an effort to achieve or complete something, verb/noun |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 1 | IM | 9 | Able to tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious, adj. (negated form is a pangram); or someone receiving medial treatment, noun |
| 1 | IM | 10 | Feeling or showing sorrow & regret for having done wrong, adj.; or a person seeking forgiveness for their sins, noun |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Having or showing no skill; clumsy |
| 1 | IN | 9 | Able to tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious, adj. (negated form is a pangram); or someone receiving medial treatment, noun |
| 1 | NA | 8 | Cloth strip sewn into clothing to identify the owner (compound made from what you're called and narrow strip of material) |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Scruff of the neck |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Tide with least difference between low & high water |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Bowling variation with 1 target less than standard; compound |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Song of praise or triumph |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Latex or oil-based wall coating |
| 1 | PA | 5 | S Am treeless grassland |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Cent. Am. country with a canal & hat |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Single sheet of window glass |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 2 | PA | 4,6 | What a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Chopped liver (… de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head |
| 2 | PA | 6,8 | Legal document that protects an invention |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Able to tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious, adj. (negated form is a pangram); or someone receiving medial treatment, noun |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Green film from aging on copper, or sheen on wood from polishing |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Backside of a hammer |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | PE | 8 | Feeling or showing sorrow & regret for having done wrong, adj.; or a person seeking forgiveness for their sins, noun |
| 2 | PE | 6,6 | Archaic for writer; compound made from “ink stick” & ♂ |
| 1 | PE | 7 | Baseball banner |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Archaic for “repressed,” now used as …-up frustration, adj. |
| 1 | PE | 7 | Five-carbon chain |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Mexican name for a pumpkin seed, noun |
| 1 | PE | 5 | The kind of jury that renders verdicts (from French for small) |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Small (French) |
| 1 | PI | 4 | ♂ who controls prostitutes, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Stuffed añimal with toys & cañdy that you hit with a stick |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 1 | PI | 4 | 16 fluid oz., or typical UK beer serving |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 2 | PI | 5,7 | Slender tube with a bulb, used to transfer or measure small amounts of liquid in a lab; has 2 spellings |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Pack down (start of Florida city on a bay) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Adhesive strip |
| 2 | TE | 5,6 | Native Am conical hut; 2 spellings |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Office worker fill-in, slang abbr. |
| 1 | TE | 5 | Speed at which a passage of music is played; more generally, pace of an activity |
| 1 | TE | 5 | Entice (as a donut to a dieter, e.g.), verb |
| 1 | TE | 6 | Bowling with the standard number of targets, compound |
| 1 | TI | 6 | Pointy ornamental ♂ neckwear-controlling device; clips are more common now; compound |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Kettledrums, Latin plural |
| 1 | TI | 6 | Long fur scarf, stole or shawl; or a clerical scarf worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt) |
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