- Letters: T/EIJMNO
- Words: 58
- Points: 238
- 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 | EM | 7 | Renowned (scholar); used with “domain” to mean gov property grab |
| 1 | EM | 4 | Give off (radiation, signals) |
| 1 | EM | 5 | Express feelings (especially when acting) |
| 1 | EM | 7 | Feeling |
| 1 | EN | 10 | Legal term meaning to prohibit someone from doing something |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 1 | IM | 8 | About to happen (… demise, e.g.), adj. |
| 2 | IN | 6,9 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | IT | 4 | One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register |
| 1 | JE | 4 | Ballet jump (French) |
| 1 | JO | 5 | Place where 2 bones connect & allow motion (knee, knuckle, e.g.) |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Encounter (I’m supposed to … him in the park) |
| 1 | ME | 7 | Souvenir in English; or 2000 thriller about an amnesiac (Guy Pearce) |
| 1 | ME | 7 | Refer to something briefly and without going into detail, verb/noun |
| 1 | ME | 6 | Experienced and trusted adviser, usually an older person |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Dispense justice (“… out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today) |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Fingerless winter glove for a kid or Sen. Bernie Sanders at inauguration |
| 1 | MO | 6 | Very brief period of time (“I’ll be with you in just a …”) |
| 1 | MO | 8 | Sound that is unchanging in pitch (“She spoke in a … that put me to sleep”) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | 3–card … con game |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point), adj.; or obscure verb meaning to raise a topic for discussion |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Speck of dust |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic & unaccompanied |
| 1 | MO | 6 | Action by which things change position, or parliamentary proposal; noun |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 1 | NI | 8 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Group of 9 (musicians) |
| 1 | NO | 4 | What you pass to someone in class, or ♪ in music |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 1 | OI | 8 | Medicinal cream for your skin |
| 1 | OM | 4 | Leave out, verb |
| 1 | ON | 7 | Former, compound (He's a … football star) |
| 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 1 | TE | 8 | Set of rooms within a house, or cheap multi-family bldg. |
| 1 | TE | 5 | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 1 | TE | 5 | Projecting piece of wood attached to a mortise, noun; or connect with one of those, verb |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 1 | TI | 4 | What clocks measure & display |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Fork prong |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Large, heavy book |
| 1 | TO | 6 | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | 1,000 kilograms, UK spelling |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Canada $2 coin nickname derived from their $1 avian coin name |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Symbolic object (… pole) |
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