- Letters: O/EHILNP
- Words: 60
- Points: 235
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | EL | 5 | Run away to marry |
| 1 | HE | 8 | Satan’s pit; an oppressive or unbearable place; compound noun |
| 1 | HE | 7 | Mischievous child (little …) (from Satan’s domain?) |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Phone greeting |
| 1 | HI | 5 | African river horse abbr. |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Golf ball target (get a …-in-one), noun/verb |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Sharpen (a blade or skill) |
| 1 | HO | 4 | O you jump through or spin around your waist (hula …) |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Old World bird with a pinkish-brown body, striped wings, and a mohawk-like crest (upupa epops) |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Fervently wish (I … it doesn’t rain today) |
| 1 | LE | 7 | Like a roaring “King” animal |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Fat-sucking procedure, abbr. |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Hard candy on a stick |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 2 | LO | 4,6 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Ambiguity or inadequacy in the law; compound noun |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 1 | NO | 9 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Slang negation |
| 1 | OE | 9 | Lover of wine, pangram |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | OL | 5 | Skateboard jump, or Stan’s slapstick partner |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 1 | ON | 6 | Hooked up to the internet, compound adj. |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Pull on a door handle to gain admittance, verb/adj. |
| 1 | OP | 5 | Express a belief or judgement |
| 1 | OP | 7 | Belief or judgment (In my humble …) |
| 1 | PE | 8 | A way to find out who's knocking at the door; compound noun |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Low-ranking worker, drudge |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Humanity, or celeb mag with annual “sexiest man” |
| 1 | PH | 6 | Benzene with a hydroxyl group, sometimes called carbolic acid |
| 1 | PH | 5 | Device to make calls (tele…) |
| 1 | PH | 5 | Record player, slang abbr. |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Rude term for mouth (“shut your …”), abyss where you shove this pecan tart |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Passenger seat behind rider on motorcycle or horse |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Tiny, precise opening, used to focus light for photography, compound pangram |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 1 | PO | 4 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Disease that put FDR in a wheelchair |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Dusty flower reproductive emission that causes allergies |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Unleavened cornbread, often Southern or Native American |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Christopher Robbins’ Winnie The … Bear |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Swimming venue |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Leo, Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Plain-woven fabric, typically a lightweight cotton, with a corded surface |
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