- Letters: R/ABGINV
- Words: 64
- Points: 362
- 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 | AG | 4 | Seaweed gel used as food thickener & bacteria culture medium |
| 1 | AG | 8 | Relating to cultivation of land (an … society) |
| 1 | AI | 6 | What you breathe |
| 1 | AI | 6 | Car safety feature that blow up in your face, compound |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Opera solo |
| 2 | AR | 7,10 | Call someone into court to answer an indictment |
| 1 | AR | 9 | Organize something |
| 1 | AR | 8 | Get there; what you do at the end of a trip |
| 1 | BA | 7 | Place to buy a drink, noun; or prevent from entering, verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Sharp projection near end of fishhook or on top of wire fence; start of Streisand name |
| 1 | BA | 9 | An uncivilized or primitive person |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Naked, adj./verb; or minimal, adj. (… necessities) |
| 2 | BA | 7,10 | Unusually good price, noun; or negotiate for lower prices or higher wages, verb |
| 1 | BA | 7 | Large flat-bottomed unpowered boat, noun; or intrude (… in), verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Large farm bldg. for storage & livestock |
| 1 | BA | 9 | Bombard, noun/verb |
| 1 | BI | 6 | Mexican dish of stewed meat seasoned with chili peppers |
| 2 | BR | 4,8 | Boast about your accomplishments, verb or noun |
| 2 | BR | 5,8 | What you think with (or, in the case of some men, what you should think with); or hit someone in the head, verb |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Grain husk (Raisin … cereal) |
| 1 | BR | 7 | Courageous, adj./verb (you get a lollipop because you were so … at the doctor's office), gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Exclamation expressing approval when a performer has done something well, from Italian; also has a feminine form; or B in the phonetic alphabet |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Prickly shrub (… patch) |
| 1 | BR | 7 | Persuade someone to do something, by means of an illegal gift of money |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Prison, especially on a warship |
| 1 | BR | 7 | Soak food in very salty water before cooking |
| 2 | BR | 5,8 | Lead, carry, or cause to come along with you (past tense is a pangram) |
| 1 | GA | 8 | Building for parking cars |
| 2 | GA | 4,7 | Clothing, noun; or dress (in), verb; start of “Grand Hotel” actress Greta name |
| 2 | GR | 4,8 | Seize suddenly & roughly, verb |
| 2 | GR | 5,8 | Cereal crop used as food, wheat for example; pattern of fibers in wood, paper or fabric |
| 1 | GR | 4 | Parent’s mom, slang abbr. |
| 2 | GR | 4,8 | Smile broadly, verb/noun |
| 2 | IN | 7,10 | Firmly establish a habit or belief in someone |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Sushi consisting of a small ball of rice smeared with wasabi sauce and topped with raw fish or other seafood |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Kurt Cobain band, or Buddhist heaven |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Jewish minister or teacher |
| 1 | RA | 7 | An old piece of cloth used for cleaning, noun; or criticize or make fun of someone, verb |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Indian ♫ pattern used as basis for improv, starts with old cloth |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Sack of fabric scraps, or miscellaneous collection; compound |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Extreme, violent, or uncontrolled anger, noun/verb |
| 2 | RA | 4,7 | Liquid precipitation |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Area between a lower and upper limit, noun/verb; or a series of mountains, noun; or an area for grazing, noun (Home, home on the …, where the deer and the antelope play) |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Hindu queen, anagram of liquid precipitation |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Full of enthusiasm (… to go) |
| 1 | RA | 8 | Cause severe or extensive damage, verb/noun |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Talk deliriously, verb; or give very high praise (critics …d about the movie), verb; or a party with lots of drinking and dancing, noun |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Make a bell sound, verb/noun; encircle, verb/noun |
| 1 | RI | 7 | Curved bone, part of the chest |
| 1 | RI | 7 | Make a boat ready for sailing by providing it with sails and rope (gerund form can also be a noun); or an apparatus for drilling or pumping oil |
| 2 | RI | 4,7 | Make a bell sound, verb/noun; encircle, verb/noun |
| 1 | VI | 6 | Someone who has never had sex |
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