Bee Roots for 2025-06-11

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: O/ACKLNU
  • Words: 45
  • Points: 168
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

root #answers coveredanswer's first two lettersclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11ANSoon, poetically
21CABean source of Hershey Bars
31CACaribbean veg dish
41CAWheeled artillery
51CARapeseed oil
61CANikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram
71CLCombo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals
81CLSleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram, negated form is a pangram
91CLIt tells time
101CLMake a dull hollow thumping sound (also spelled with an A or O); or hit, often in the head, past tense and gerund forms are pangrams
111CO“Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad
121CO1st part of popular soda brand name
131CORooster, or slang for penis
141COHot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from
151CONest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb
161COPepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor
171COIrish mashed potatoes & cabbage (think large weapon that shoots balls)
181CO: (punctuation mark), or intestine
191COFaint, stall, or break down (my car …ed out), verb; or hit, especially on the head, verb
201COPrep or heat food
211CO“Warm” antonym, or “neat!”
221CU“Crazy” bird that pops out of a timepiece
231KNRap on a door, hoping to be let in, verb; or run into, verb, or disparage, slang verb/noun (…, …. Who's there?)
241KNSmall mound (the grassy …)
251KOTree climbing marsupial “bear”
261KOZen Buddhist paradoxical riddle or story for meditation, anagram of Hawaiian district or coffee grown there
271KOSmall African tree with nuts that flavor Pepsi
281KOCrazy or eccentric person, NOT a chef
291LLSouth American grassy plain
301LOBorrowed $, noun/verb
311LOFrom a nearby area, or a train making all stops
321LOA door fastener with a key, noun/verb
331LOCrazy, Spanish
341LOHang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue
351LODirect one’s gaze toward someone or something, verb/noun
361LO“Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin
311NOFrom a nearby area, or a train making all stops
371NONotch at the back of an arrow, noun; or fit an arrow to a bowstring, verb
381NOBarnes & Noble e-reader, or secluded corner
391NO12:00, midday, 🕛
401NOIn grammar, a person, place or thing
81UNSleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram, negated form is a pangram
131UNRooster, or slang for penis
211UN“Warm” antonym, or “neat!”
321UNA door fastener with a key, noun/verb

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