- Letters: G/ANORTU
- Words: 55
- Points: 250
- Pangrams: 3
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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 | 4 | Very excited to hear or see something, adj. |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Ancient Greek market |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Long-haired rabbit or goat, or fabric from its hair (… sweater) |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Atomic no. 18, abundant gas in Earth atmosphere |
| 1 | AR | 8 | Small floating octopus; or one of Jason's crew in mythology |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Lingo |
| 1 | AR | 8 | Acting offensively superior, adj.; or exaggerating one's own importance, adj. |
| 1 | AU | 5 | Portend |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain …"), noun/verb |
| 1 | GA | 10 | Enormous, based on Rabelais' voracious giant |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Croc cousin, slang abbr. |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age (rhymes with what ghosts do) |
| 1 | GN | 4 | Tiny flying insect |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Alt milk source (nannies, billies, & kids) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Orchestra chime or dinner bell |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Intend to do, slang contraction |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Ruffian |
| 1 | GO | 6 | 3 Greek sisters with snakes for hair & petrifying gazes |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Have to do so, slang contraction (I’ve … run) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Swollen foot disease from excess uric acid; Ben Franklin had it |
| 1 | GR | 4 | Parent’s mom, slang abbr. |
| 2 | GR | 5,7 | Allow something, verb; or admit something is true, verb; or an amount of money given by a government or organization for a specific purpose, noun (research …) |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Make an unhappy sound, or respond to a lame joke |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Medieval coin, or hulled kernels (bulgur, e.g.) used in soup & porridge (kasha, e.g.) |
| 1 | GR | 4 | Watered-down (nautical) rum |
| 1 | GR | 6 | Small picturesque cave (the Blue … in Capri) |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Paste for filling gaps in tiles |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Short & low (esp. pig) sound; or slang term for lowly soldier or worker |
| 1 | GU | 5 | Bat droppings |
| 1 | GU | 4 | Cluster bean |
| 1 | GU | 9 | Formal promise, typically in writing, that certain conditions will be fulfilled, especially that something defective will be repaired or replaced |
| 1 | GU | 4 | Indian spiritual teacher |
| 1 | NO | 7 | 9–sided shape |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Candy made from sugar or honey, nuts, and egg white |
| 1 | OR | 5 | Red-haired ape, slang abbr. |
| 1 | OR | 9 | Four-handed great ape with orange fur |
| 1 | OR | 5 | Keyboard instrument with pipes (church …) |
| 1 | OU | 5 | $ spent, to a CPA, literal opposite of “income”; or, in gerund form, extroverted, compound |
| 1 | OU | 6 | Have better or more weapons (pistols), or surpass in power, compound |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Indian ♫ pattern used as basis for improv, starts with old cloth |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Highly seasoned meat cut into small pieces and stewed with vegetables |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Untidy, disorganized, or diverse (group), compound adj.; starts with old cloth |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Sauce made from tomatoes and ground or chopped meat, which is cooked for a long time, usually served with pasta (also a brand of Italian sauces sold in grocery stores) |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Make a bell sound, verb/noun; encircle, verb/noun |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Cheap liquor (literally, what it does to your stomach), compound |
| 1 | RU | 4 | Make a bell sound, verb/noun; encircle, verb/noun |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 1 | TA | 5 | South American ballroom dance with abrupt pauses, noun/verb |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Small widely cultivated perennial whose leaves are an aromatic herb (Artemisia dracunculus) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Wrap worn in ancient Rome (… party) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Chinese mafia, or BBQ grabber if plural (or used as a verb) |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Identification label, noun/verb; or kids' game (…, you're it) |
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