Bee Roots

Bee Roots for 2025-12-07

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: L/GHINRT

Words: 37

Points: 213

Pangrams: 1

Source: Saffron Blaze - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia

Table content

with first two letters of answer and length

answers covered answer's first two letters answer's length clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)

1 GI 8 Silly laugh; verb/noun

1 GI 4 Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79

2 GI 4,7 Fish breathing organ

1 GI 4 Young ♀

2 GL 5,8 Give out or reflect small flashes of light, verb/noun

2 GR 5,8 BBQ cooker; or interrogate, slang

2 HI 9,12 Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb, past tense is a pangram

2 HI 4,7 What Jack & Jill went up

1 HI 4 Sword or dagger handle

2 LI 5,8 Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …)

1 LI 9 It precedes thunder

2 LI 4,7 Singsong accent

1 LI 6 A queue, what you wait in for your turn

1 LI 4 Dryer fluff

1 NI 8 Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt)

1 NI 10 What you use when you don’t want to sleep in the dark, compound

1 RI 6 Make someone annoyed or irritated

1 RI 4 Small stream

2 TH 6,9 Sudden feeling of excitement & pleasure (the … of plummeting down on a roller coaster), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram

1 TI 6 Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square

2 TI 4,7 Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb

2 TI 4,7 Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at)

1 TI 5 Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym

1 TI 8 Slight prickling or stinging sensation, noun/verb

1 TI 7 Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house

2 TR 5,8 Vibratory sound, Star Trek symbiotic species (Dax, e.g.), or how Spanish people say “R”

answers covered	answer's first two letters	answer's length	clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1	GI	8	Silly laugh; verb/noun
1	GI	4	Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79
2	GI	4,7	Fish breathing organ
1	GI	4	Young ♀
2	GL	5,8	Give out or reflect small flashes of light, verb/noun
2	GR	5,8	BBQ cooker; or interrogate, slang
2	HI	9,12	Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb, past tense is a pangram
2	HI	4,7	What Jack & Jill went up
1	HI	4	Sword or dagger handle
2	LI	5,8	Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …)
1	LI	9	It precedes thunder
2	LI	4,7	Singsong accent
1	LI	6	A queue, what you wait in for your turn
1	LI	4	Dryer fluff
1	NI	8	Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt)
1	NI	10	What you use when you don’t want to sleep in the dark, compound
1	RI	6	Make someone annoyed or irritated
1	RI	4	Small stream
2	TH	6,9	Sudden feeling of excitement & pleasure (the … of plummeting down on a roller coaster), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram
1	TI	6	Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square
2	TI	4,7	Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb
2	TI	4,7	Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at)
1	TI	5	Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym
1	TI	8	Slight prickling or stinging sensation, noun/verb
1	TI	7	Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house
2	TR	5,8	Vibratory sound, Star Trek symbiotic species (Dax, e.g.), or how Spanish people say “R”

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