- Letters: T/AIMNRV
- Words: 43
- Points: 227
- 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.
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 letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife's nickname |
| 2 | 1 | A | Complete & utter (nonsense), archaic adj. |
| 3 | 1 | A | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 4 | 1 | A | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 5 | 1 | A | Flower oil for perfume |
| 6 | 1 | A | Video game stand-in, or film set on Pandora |
| 7 | 1 | I | Make someone annoyed, impatient, or angry; or cause inflammation |
| 41 | 1 | I | Differ in size, amount, degree, or nature (Your results may …), verb |
| 8 | 1 | M | Keep up (appearances), or support; verb |
| 9 | 1 | M | Ray (fish) |
| 10 | 1 | M | Repeated yoga word, or slogan |
| 11 | 1 | M | Store (K–, Wal–) |
| 12 | 1 | M | Rat Pack singer Dean (Dino); or a swift-flying insectivorous songbird of the swallow family |
| 13 | 1 | M | 007’s “shaken not stirred” drink |
| 14 | 1 | M | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 15 | 1 | M | Catcher’s glove, or former Sen. Romney |
| 16 | 1 | N | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 17 | 1 | R | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 18 | 1 | R | Speak or shout wildly & at length |
| 19 | 1 | R | Machine gun sound |
| 20 | 1 | R | Palm fiber for furniture |
| 21 | 1 | T | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | T | Japanese rich, naturally fermented soy sauce |
| 23 | 1 | T | Small forest-dwelling South American monkey of the marmoset family, typically brightly colored and with tufts and crests of hair around the face and neck |
| 24 | 1 | T | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 25 | 1 | T | Onomatopoetic name for war trumpet |
| 26 | 1 | T | Hindu/Buddhist mystical text, involving sex |
| 27 | 1 | T | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 28 | 1 | T | Plaid patterned Scottish cloth |
| 29 | 1 | T | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 30 | 1 | T | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 31 | 1 | T | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 32 | 1 | T | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 33 | 1 | T | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 34 | 1 | T | Choo-choo, or prep for athletic event |
| 35 | 1 | T | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 36 | 1 | T | People mover in Disney parks, parking lots, & cities |
| 37 | 1 | T | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
| 38 | 1 | T | 3-hulled sailboat (“feline” 2-hulled ones are more common) |
| 39 | 1 | T | Insignificant facts (there are often contests), noun + adj. |
| 40 | 1 | V | Troublesome wild animal, or what Yosemite Sam calls Bugs, pangram |
| 41 | 1 | V | Differ in size, amount, degree, or nature (Your results may …), verb |
| 42 | 1 | V | Nutritional substance such as A & B6, or pill such as Centrum |
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