- Letters: t/ACNOPU
- Words: 51
- Points: 211
- 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 | AC | 7,10 | $ held for you, (bank, savings, checking…, e.g.) |
| 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Parent’s sister |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Car, abbr., or “self” prefix |
| 1 | CA | 6 | “I am unable to do so,” formally |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Tilt, or “I am unable to do so” contraction; hypocritical and sanctimonious talk |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Medium-length narrative music for voice & instruments, from Italian for “sung” |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Swiss “state,” or upper inner corner of a flag (blue field with white stars here) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Short feline snooze, compound |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Tropical fruit in Mounds & Piña Colada |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Get in touch with, verb; or list of people’s numbers on your phone (if plural), noun |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Avoid doing something you're supposed to do, slang compound |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Tally, verb; or title for Dracula & Monte Cristo, noun |
| 1 | CU | 6 | Cardboard person (how you make one), or spy intermediary, compound |
| 1 | CU | 5 | Class clown, slang; or audio or video made from pieces of existing media, compound |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 1 | OC | 8 | Live in or have a business in a house or building; or (said of a military force) control a conquered country |
| 1 | OC | 6 | Arc of a circle that’s 1/8 of circumference, or obsolete navigation device |
| 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 1 | OU | 6 | Results of computer processing, compound |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Formal agreement, treaty (don’t make one with the Devil) |
| 1 | PA | 4 | What a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Temp floating bridge; or cylinder full of air, two of which keep a type of slow boat afloat |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Push your lower lip out because you're annoyed |
| 1 | PU | 4 | Football drop-kick, flat-bottomed boat, Irish £ (slang) |
| 1 | PU | 6 | The act of retiring a batter or runner (baseball), compound |
| 1 | PU | 4 | Hit a golf ball gently on the green |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Provoke with words |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Not slack, as a rope, adj. |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “… & Fugue in D Minor”) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Lightweight jacket, or final layer of paint; compound |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Froot Loops mascot Sam; bird with large colorful beak |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Chicken of the sea (Ahi …) |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Divide into pieces with a knife or other sharp implement, verb/noun |
| 1 | UN | 4 | Archaic preposition (Handel’s Messiah “For … us a child is born”) |
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