- Letters: L/AGINTV
- Words: 76
- Points: 439
- 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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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AI | Be sick |
| 2 | 2 | AL | Pond scum |
| 3 | 2 | AL | Sync up positionally (… the 2 holes so you can put a screw through them) |
| 29 | 1 | AL | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 4 | 1 | AN | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 5 | 1 | AN | Yearly record book |
| 6 | 1 | AN | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 7 | 1 | AN | Heavy block for metalworking (… Chorus from Verdi's Il Trovatore) |
| 48 | 1 | AT | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 8 | 2 | AV | Make use of (… yourself of), or use (to no …) |
| 9 | 1 | GA | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 10 | 1 | GA | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 11 | 2 | GA | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 12 | 1 | GA | Brave, heroic |
| 13 | 2 | GA | Roam around for pleasure, pangram |
| 14 | 1 | GA | Lanky & bumbling; gerund (think a newborn foal trying to stand; starts with a group of thugs such as the Crips; the more common term ends in –LY) |
| 15 | 1 | GA | Nerve cluster |
| 16 | 1 | GI | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 17 | 1 | GI | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 18 | 2 | GI | Fish breathing organ |
| 19 | 1 | GL | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 20 | 2 | GL | Give out or reflect small flashes of light, verb/noun |
| 21 | 2 | IN | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 22 | 1 | LA | Fall behind, verb/noun |
| 23 | 1 | LA | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 24 | 1 | LA | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 25 | 1 | LA | Molten rock from a volcano |
| 26 | 1 | LA | Wash |
| 27 | 1 | LA | Put something down |
| 28 | 1 | LI | Medical term for tie off (-TION form is more common: tubal …ion) |
| 30 | 2 | LI | Singsong accent |
| 31 | 1 | LI | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 32 | 1 | LI | Dryer fluff |
| 33 | 2 | LI | What a lawyer does with a lawsuit, verb, noun form is a pangram |
| 34 | 1 | LI | Exist, verb; or not on tape (TV show), adj. |
| 35 | 2 | NA | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 36 | 1 | NA | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 37 | 1 | NA | Seafaring military force, adj., not belly button |
| 38 | 1 | NI | Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt) |
| 39 | 2 | TA | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 40 | 1 | TA | Door at the back of a pickup truck, noun; or follow too closely when driving, slang verb; or party in the parking lot before a sporting event, compound noun/verb |
| 41 | 1 | TA | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 42 | 1 | TA | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 43 | 1 | TA | Ankle bone |
| 44 | 1 | TA | Twist together into a confused mass, verb/noun |
| 45 | 1 | TA | Rat out your sibling to your parents |
| 46 | 1 | TI | Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square |
| 47 | 2 | TI | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 48 | 2 | TI | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 49 | 1 | TI | Slight prickling or stinging sensation, noun/verb |
| 50 | 1 | TI | Stimulate or excite, especially in a sexual way |
| 51 | 1 | VA | Muscular tube connecting female genitals to the cervix |
| 52 | 1 | VA | Tenth cranial nerve, supplying the heart, lungs, and upper digestive tract |
| 53 | 1 | VA | Possessing or showing courage or determination |
| 54 | 2 | VA | Flavor from beans of white (plain …) ice cream + chemical compound of that flavor, C₈H₈O₃ |
| 55 | 1 | VI | Small glass container (… of poison), NOT despicable |
| 56 | 2 | VI | Time spent awake when usually sleeping, especially to keep watch or pray |
| 57 | 1 | VI | Large & luxurious country house (Roman …) |
| 58 | 1 | VI | Bad guy in a story |
| 59 | 1 | VI | Essential, or lively (… signs) |
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