Bee Roots for 2025-06-30

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: L/AEHPUV
  • Words: 55
  • Points: 195
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

root #answers coveredclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
111st Hebrew letter, א
21(Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene
311st Greek letter, α
41Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me)
52Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun
611 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away
71Kosher in Islam
81Strong, well, fit (… & hearty); or Revolutionary War patriot Nathan
91Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty
102Middle eastern candy made from sesame paste
111Divide into 2 equal parts (½ as a verb)
121Schlep; rent a “U” one when moving to new home
131Recover from injury
141Back of your foot (Achilles’ weakness), noun; or (of a dog) follow closely
151Satan’s domain
161Slang spelling of 3–word phrase (the middle connecting word is spelled as it’s pronounced) meaning extremely (he’s a … good guy, it was a … party)
171Assist, verb; or assistance, noun (F1 key on a computer, often)
181Obscure word for tool or weapon handle; start of “Swiss” font name
191Polynesian dance, or hoop you twirl around your waist
201Base of ship, or skin of nuts
211Jacket edge that’s folded back
221Molten rock from a volcano
231Wash
241Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb
251Depart, verb
261River embankment to prevent flooding
271Flat, adj.; or straightening tool with bubble, noun
281Hawaiian BBQ
291Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun
301Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer
311Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish
321Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun
331White-faced, NOT a bucket
341Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer"
351Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term
361Pontiff adj.
371Repeated bell ringing or laughter
381Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb
391Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence
401Literary for “whimper” (usually ends in –ING)
411Tug on, verb
421Soft, wet, shapeless mass (“… Fiction” film), or floating bits of fruit in orange juice, noun/verb
431For an insect, the state between larva and adult
441Suddenly lift something, especially part of the Earth's surface; compound: opposite of down + lift or raise with great effort (usually with -al suffix, which is a pangram)
452It hangs above your throat at the back of your mouth
461Low area of land between mountains (… of Tears)
471What something’s worth (retail … of a used car)
481Device that controls passage of fluid or air (shut-off …, heart …)
491Calf meat (… Parmesan)
503♀ outer genitals

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