- Letters: B/AGILNO
- Words: 80
- Points: 427
- Pangrams: 2
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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 |
| root # | answers covered | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Someone born without skin, hair, or eye pigment |
| 2 | 1 | Criminal’s excuse |
| 3 | 1 | Sound a sheep makes, noun/verb |
| 4 | 1 | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 5 | 1 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 6 | 1 | Large monkey with red butt |
| 7 | 1 | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 8 | 2 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 9 | 1 | Parcel of hay, noun/verb, or actor Christian |
| 10 | 2 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb/noun |
| 11 | 2 | Helium or air filled toy that can pop |
| 12 | 1 | Prohibit, verb |
| 13 | 1 | Unoriginal, dull, noun form is a pangram |
| 14 | 1 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 15 | 2 | Sound of a collision, noun (“The Big … Theory”) |
| 16 | 1 | African tree |
| 17 | 2 | Invoice, or actor Murray, noun/verb |
| 18 | 1 | A blind channel leading out from a stream, Australian pangram |
| 19 | 1 | 1 followed by 9 zeroes (in US & France); Latin 2 prefix, ordinal form is a pangram |
| 20 | 1 | Receptacle for storing a specified substance, noun/verb; trash can (British) |
| 21 | 1 | Overindulge (…-watch Netflix); verb/noun |
| 22 | 1 | Game with a number sheet, marker, and a number caller |
| 23 | 2 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 24 | 2 | Russian pancake |
| 25 | 1 | Flashy jewelry (think rappers), noun |
| 26 | 2 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 27 | 2 | Online journal, noun/verb |
| 28 | 1 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 29 | 1 | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 30 | 1 | Sewing machine thread holder |
| 31 | 1 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 32 | 1 | Wet muddy ground too soft to support something heavy; become stuck in such a place, verb (negotiations …ed down) |
| 33 | 1 | Cause someone to be astonished or overwhelmed |
| 34 | 3 | Heat water to 212°F or 100°C |
| 35 | 1 | Sound of a spring or jack-in-the-box, noun |
| 36 | 1 | Thrown weighted string weapon |
| 37 | 1 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 38 | 1 | Western string tie |
| 39 | 1 | Large smoked, seasoned North American sausage |
| 40 | 1 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 41 | 1 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 42 | 1 | Water pipe for smoking weed, or sound of a large bell |
| 43 | 1 | Paired small drum held between the knees |
| 44 | 1 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 45 | 1 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 46 | 1 | Breast, slang |
| 47 | 1 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 48 | 1 | Far-right anti-government extremist movement & militia (… bois), starts with ghost scare word; originally a style of Latino popular music and dance from the 1960's |
| 49 | 1 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 50 | 1 | Talk at length, typically about trivial matters |
| 51 | 1 | Talk rapidly and unintelligibly, verb/noun |
| 52 | 1 | Another small ape related to chimps, or “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire” author; noun |
| 53 | 1 | Insulting or mocking remark, noun/verb |
| 54 | 1 | Insincere & shallow |
| 55 | 1 | Semi-liquid lump, as in cheese |
| 56 | 1 | Worldwide, adj., as in “… warming” |
| 57 | 1 | Eat quickly and noisily; or sound that turkeys make |
| 58 | 1 | Monstrous creature in folklore, LOTR, or D&D; noun |
| 59 | 3 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 60 | 1 | Throw or hit a ball high in the air, verb/noun |
| 61 | 1 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 62 | 1 | Take, grab, or steal something; catch someone doing something wrong |
| 63 | 1 | Conspicuously rich person, as in VP Agnew’s “nattering …s of negativism” |
| 64 | 1 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 65 | 1 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 66 | 1 | Compel (past tense is a pangram) |
| 67 | 1 | Having an stretched-out rectangular or oval shape |
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