- Letters: O/AILNTV
- Words: 63
- Points: 350
- Pangrams: 4
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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
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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 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 2 | 1 | A | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 3 | 1 | A | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 4 | 1 | A | Orange-red dye obtained from the pulp of a tropical fruit, used for coloring foods and fabric; also used as a condiment; or the tree it comes from (Bixa orellana) |
| 5 | 1 | A | Ceremonially smear someone with oil, or designate as a successor |
| 6 | 1 | A | Soon, poetically |
| 7 | 1 | A | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 8 | 1 | A | Pilot or fly in a plane, verb (from Latin for bird) |
| 13 | 1 | A | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 28 | 1 | A | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 43 | 1 | A | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 9 | 1 | I | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 10 | 2 | I | Introduce or invent new ideas, products, or methods, verb, adj. form is a pangram |
| 11 | 1 | I | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 12 | 2 | I | Ask someone to a party, verb, adj. form is a pangram |
| 14 | 1 | I | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 43 | 1 | I | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 15 | 1 | L | Sheep (wool) oil, used as skin moisturizer |
| 16 | 1 | L | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 17 | 1 | L | South American grassy plain |
| 18 | 1 | L | Borrowed $, noun/verb |
| 19 | 1 | L | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 20 | 1 | L | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 21 | 1 | L | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 22 | 1 | L | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 23 | 1 | L | Moisturizing or suntan cream |
| 24 | 1 | L | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 25 | 2 | N | Country, or temperance activist Carrie |
| 26 | 1 | N | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 27 | 1 | N | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 28 | 1 | N | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 29 | 1 | N | Another word for margin comment (lop off 2 letters from the start of the other list word), or system of symbols (algebraic…) |
| 30 | 2 | N | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 31 | 1 | N | Star explosion, PBS science show, or Chevy model that doesn’t go (in Spanish) |
| 32 | 1 | N | Legal term for "replace an old contract with a new one" |
| 33 | 1 | O | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 34 | 1 | O | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 35 | 1 | O | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 36 | 1 | O | Shape of a running track or 🥚, from Latin for “egg” |
| 37 | 1 | O | Loud prolonged applause |
| 38 | 1 | T | A bird of prey's claw |
| 39 | 1 | T | Skin “ink” |
| 40 | 1 | T | Stimulate or excite, especially in a sexual way |
| 41 | 1 | T | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 42 | 1 | T | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 43 | 1 | T | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 44 | 1 | T | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 45 | 1 | T | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 46 | 1 | T | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 47 | 1 | T | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 48 | 1 | V | 6–stringed upright Renaissance fiddle |
| 49 | 1 | V | Modern fiddle smaller than cello, cross-dressing twin lead of “Twelfth Night,” or actress Davis |
| 50 | 1 | V | Break a rule or agreement (they …ed the terms of the cease-fire), verb, noun form is a pangram |
| 51 | 1 | V | Itzhak Perlman’s fiddle |
| 52 | 1 | V | French exclamation (et …) “here it is!” |
| 53 | 1 | V | Flying or capable of flight |
| 54 | 2 | V | The power of choosing or determining (they left the church of their own …, not because of excommunication), noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 55 | 1 | V | Unit of electric potential (110 … socket) |
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