- Letters: V/ELNOPR
- Words: 41
- Points: 211
- 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 | Hour before noon |
| 2 | 1 | Immature eel |
| 3 | 2 | Container for a letter in the mail, noun/verb |
| 4 | 2 | Number that can be divided by 2 without a remainder, or flat & smooth; adj.; or to make or become that (… out the edges) |
| 5 | 1 | Always; or continuously; or at all times (happily … after) |
| 6 | 1 | Develop gradually (Darwin said that humans and apes …d from a common ancestor), verb, negated past tense is a pangram |
| 7 | 1 | River embankment to prevent flooding |
| 8 | 2 | Flat, adj.; or straightening tool with bubble, noun |
| 9 | 1 | Bar that pivots on a fulcrum |
| 10 | 2 | The ♥ in I♥NY, or “zero” in tennis, negated past tense is a pangram |
| 11 | 1 | Deeply sad and lonely because the object of your affection does not return your affection |
| 12 | 1 | Cell in your body that carries electrical signals |
| 13 | 1 | At no time; or under no circumstances |
| 14 | 1 | Book of fiction (romance, mystery), noun; or “new” (… idea), adj. |
| 15 | 1 | Appliance for baking |
| 16 | 1 | Opposite of under |
| 17 | 1 | Annoy or irritate |
| 18 | 1 | Small to medium-sized coastal bird with a short beak, large eyes, and long wings that runs fast and catches bugs |
| 19 | 1 | Hollow quick bread shaped like a muffin and made from a thin batter of eggs, milk, and flour |
| 20 | 2 | Demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt |
| 21 | 1 | Semi-hard Italian cheese made from cow's milk using a stretched-curd process, pangram |
| 22 | 1 | Peasant who directed farm labor in medieval times |
| 23 | 1 | Scold or correct, usually in a gentle way |
| 24 | 2 | Take great joy or intense pleasure in something; or celebrate noisily and wildly |
| 25 | 1 | Honor and admire profoundly and respectfully; or American patriot who warned that the British were coming |
| 26 | 1 | Rotate |
| 27 | 1 | Pistol that holds its ammunition in a circle and rotates after each shot |
| 28 | 1 | Pistol that holds its bullets in a cylinder that turns after each shot |
| 29 | 2 | Roam |
| 30 | 1 | Vice president (informal) |
| 31 | 1 | Change direction or turn sharply |
| 32 | 1 | Thin wood coating on a less attractive surface, common in furniture |
| 33 | 1 | Energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness, especially in artistic performance |
| 34 | 1 | Small burrowing rodent AKA field mouse |
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