Bee Roots for 2025-06-20

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/ABEHLT
  • Words: 61
  • Points: 287
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: John C. H. Grabill, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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, ...)
1AL51st Hebrew letter, א
1AL51st Greek letter, α
1AL8The set of letters used in a language, pangram
1AP6Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me)
3AP6,8,10Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun
1AP9Dealing with requests to overturn legal decisions (… court)
1AP51 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away
1AP6Very small utility program
1BE4Car horn sound, noun/verb
1BL5Cover a profanity with a sound (… out)
1EP4Fencing sword
1HE11Person proficient in sports
1HE4Stack in a disorderly pile, verb/noun
1HE7What Dorothy did with her ruby slippers to return home, small amount of leftover alcohol, or shoe lift; compound
2HE4,8Assist, verb; or assistance, noun (F1 key on a computer, often)
1LA5Jacket edge that’s folded back
2LE4,5Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb
1PA6Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish
1PA6Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun
1PA9Agreeable or pleasant, especially to the sense of taste
2PA6,7Roof of the mouth
1PA4White-faced, NOT a bucket
1PA7Painter’s color mixing board, or color scheme
1PA4Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer"
1PA6Bed for sleeping, or for loading onto a forklift
1PA4Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term
1PA8So intense (a feeling or atmosphere) as to seem almost physical (a … sense of loss), or can be felt by touch (negative form is a pangram)
1PA7Medical exam by touch, verb
1PA4Father, slang
1PA5Pontiff adj.
1PA4Chopped liver (… de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head
2PA7,8Kneecap, singular + Latin plural
1PA4Walking or bike trail
1PE4Repeated bell ringing or laughter
1PE4Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg
1PE6Small rock (… Beach golf course near Monterey, CA)
2PE4,8Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb
1PE4Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look
1PE6Small, rounded, compressed mass (food, buckshot, rabbit dung)
1PE4Bombard (with snowballs), verb; or animal fur, noun
1PE5Flower segment, not gas or brake foot controller
1PH4“Excellent” in hip-hop slang, NOT obese
1PL4Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym
1PL5Dish
1PL8Disc-shaped blood cell
1PL4Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence
1PL5Decorative fold in clothing (skirt, e.g.)
1PL4Commoner, slang insult, from Latin
1PL5Military academy cadet, slang
1TA4Spanish bar snack (usually plural)
1TA4Adhesive strip
2TE5,6Native Am conical hut; Spelling Bee accepts 3 spellings
1TE8Person with ability to communicate mind to mind; the ability to do that is a pangram

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