Bee Roots for 2025-05-22

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
  • Letters: P/ACHLOT
  • Words: 47
  • Points: 163
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: The New 96.1

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1AL7Word for a sweet, fizzy alcoholic drink
1AL6S Am mammal similar to but smaller than a llama
1AL51st Greek letter, α
1AP6Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me)
1AT4Opposite of bottom
1CA4Mafia boss, or moveable bar on a guitar
1CA7Type blurry letters into it to show you’re not a robot
1CA7“Cigar tree”
1CH4Become dry or sore (e.g., lips), verb; guy, fella (British)
1CH4Cut into pieces (… suey)
1CL4Applaud
1CL4Sound of a horse’s hooves on a hard surface
1CO4Chicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (…ed up)
1CO5Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose
1HO4O you jump through or spin around your waist (hula …)
1HO6Hype/ballyhoo
1HO6Asian dish similar to fondue; AKA steamboat, compound
1LA6Portable computer, compound
1LO6Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds
1LO4Closed curve
1OP4Gemstone from Australia, October birthstone
1PA4Formal agreement, treaty (don’t make one with the Devil)
1PA6Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun
1PA7Roof of the mouth
1PA4Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer"
1PA4Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term
1PA4Father, slang
1PA5Pontiff adj.
1PA5Temp fix for hole in bike tire or trouser knee
1PA4Walking or bike trail
1PH4“Excellent” in hip-hop slang, NOT obese
1PH5Picture made using a camera: short form is more common in the Bee, long form is a pangram
1PL4Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym
1PL4Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz
1PL4Scheme, noun or verb (Roth’s “The … Against America”); or storyline in fiction
1PO5Cook by simmering in a small amount of liquid (...ed egg); hunt illegally, verb
1PO4Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.)
1PO4Croquet on horseback
1PO5Dog, slang (don’t screw the …)
1PO4Christopher Robbins’ Winnie The … Bear
1PO4Swimming venue
1PO4Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun
1PO5Daddy
1PO6Spud
1PO8Pacific Northwest Native American gift-giving feast, compound pangram
1TA4Spanish bar snack (usually plural)
1TO7Lightweight jacket, or final layer of paint; compound

About this site

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