- Letters: E/BFLOTU
- Words: 54
- Points: 215
- Pangrams: 1
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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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content |
| root # | answers covered | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Cow meat, noun; or strengthen, slang verb; or complaint, slang noun |
| 2 | 1 | Borscht veg |
| 3 | 1 | VW compact car, or winged insect (scarab, e.g.) |
| 4 | 1 | Happen to someone (said about something bad) |
| 5 | 1 | It rings |
| 6 | 1 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 7 | 1 | It holds your pants up |
| 8 | 1 | Nut that Bloody Mary chews in “South Pacific”; AKA areca nut |
| 9 | 1 | Primary color, neither red nor green |
| 10 | 1 | Flower shaped like something that rings, in the primary color that isn't red or gree, compound |
| 11 | 1 | Blowfly with an iridescent (sky color) abdomen or whole body, compound made from sky color + glass wine container |
| 12 | 1 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 13 | 1 | Baby foot covering |
| 14 | 2 | Baby milk feeder, suffixed form that means the complete contents of one is a pangram |
| 15 | 1 | Round loaf of crusty bread (French) |
| 16 | 1 | Thin sphere of liquid enclosing air or another gas (the kids loved blowing soap …s) |
| 17 | 1 | A meal with many options that you serve yourself, noun; or strike repeatedly and violently, verb (huge waves … the coast) |
| 18 | 1 | Gun ammo |
| 19 | 1 | Isolated hill with steep sides & flat top |
| 20 | 1 | Pretentious, flowery, or weak, adj. |
| 21 | 1 | Spicy cajun or creole stew with shellfish over rice |
| 22 | 1 | Weak (…-minded), adj. |
| 23 | 1 | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 24 | 1 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 25 | 1 | Cloth made by rolling and pressing wool with moisture and/or heat |
| 26 | 1 | Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party” |
| 27 | 1 | Condition, noun (in fine …); rhymes with whistling teapot |
| 28 | 1 | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 29 | 1 | Group of ships sailing together, noun; or enema brand; or able to run fast (… of foot) |
| 30 | 1 | Sheet of ice atop the ocean, homophone of moving liquid |
| 31 | 1 | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 32 | 1 | High-pitched wind instrument (Mozart's opera The Magic …); or tall thin glass for champagne |
| 33 | 1 | What you cover with a sock |
| 34 | 1 | Pollute, verb; or make an out of bounds or illegal sports play, verb/noun/adj. (he …ed it off/the referree called a …/he hit a … ball), past tense of the verb meaning to make it like this is a pangram |
| 35 | 1 | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 36 | 1 | ←; remaining (only 1 cookie …); or departed |
| 37 | 1 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 38 | 1 | Use oil to reduce friction and make something work better |
| 39 | 1 | Older guitar relative |
| 40 | 1 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 41 | 1 | Margarine |
| 42 | 1 | Electric power receptacle where you insert a plug |
| 43 | 1 | Cereal grain from Ethiopia |
| 44 | 1 | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 45 | 1 | Hard, buttery candy found in a Heath Bar |
| 46 | 1 | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 47 | 1 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 48 | 3 | A long, hollow cylinder (Londoners call their subway "The …"); or ride on an inner …, verb |
| 49 | 1 | Footstool or low seat (where Little Miss Muffet sat) |
| 50 | 1 | Lightweight, stiff veil or gown fabric |
| 51 | 1 | Private instructor |
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 social media.
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