- Letters: L/ABEGHN
- Words: 52
- Points: 206
- 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 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 3 | AL | 4,5,5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Claim without proof |
| 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Harp-playing winged heaven resident, or Xmas tree topper |
| 1 | AN | 5 | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Heat then cool metal or glass slowly to toughen it |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Genesis “Tower of …,” noun |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Dense bread roll in the shape of a ring, made by boiling dough and then baking it |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Parcel of hay, or actor Christian |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Whale straining “teeth” |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Unoriginal, dull |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Rigid bracelet or anklet |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Dog breed that gave us Snoopy |
| 1 | BE | 8 | A pitch aimed at a batter’s head, compound |
| 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Dull, informal adj. or exclamation |
| 1 | EA | 5 | A bald one is the USA's national bird |
| 1 | EL | 4 | Énérgy, stylé, énthusiasm; from Frénch |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Talk rapidly and unintelligibly, verb/noun |
| 1 | GA | 5 | The part of a wall that encloses the end of a pitched roof (Anne of Green …s) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | A “herd” of geese |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 8 | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Strong wind storm |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 1 | GE | 5 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Gather info from various sources, or take leftover grain after a harvest |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Narrow valley, or Eagles singer Frey |
| 1 | HA | 6 | Dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Kosher in Islam |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Strong, well, fit (… & hearty); or Revolutionary War patriot Nathan |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty |
| 1 | HA | 8 | What you do to a painting you want to mount on a wall, or to a criminal sentenced to the gallows |
| 2 | HE | 4,8 | Recover from injury |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Back of your foot (Achilles’ weakness), noun; or (of a dog) follow closely |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Satan’s domain |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Tag or sticky paper with info (Avery mailing …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small road (Beatles’ Penny … or Superman’s Lois …) |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Not fatty (… meat), adj.; or incline (… back in your chair) |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
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