- Letters: P/DEINOW
- Words: 55
- Points: 248
- 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
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | D | Not shallow |
| 2 | 2 | D | Rely on, or singular of adult diaper brand, adverb made from the adjective form is a pangram |
| 3 | 1 | D | Put something down quickly into liquid, verb; or brief swim, noun |
| 4 | 2 | D | Simpleton, or slang for drugs |
| 5 | 1 | E | Fencing sword |
| 6 | 1 | E | Form of lyric poem written in couplets, in which a long line is followed by a shorter one, from Greek |
| 7 | 1 | N | Bowling variation with 1 target less than standard, compound |
| 8 | 1 | N | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 9 | 1 | N | Slang negation |
| 10 | 2 | O | Pull on a door handle to gain admittance, verb/adj. |
| 11 | 2 | O | Express a belief or judgement |
| 12 | 1 | O | Belief or judgment (In my humble …) |
| 13 | 1 | O | Drug class with a current epidemic (OxyContin, e.g) |
| 14 | 1 | P | Urinate, slang |
| 15 | 1 | P | Backside of a hammer |
| 16 | 2 | P | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 17 | 1 | P | Baseball league for kids around 8 years old (rhyming) |
| 18 | 1 | P | Tool for writing with ink, noun/verb; or small enclosure for keeping animals, noun/verb |
| 19 | 2 | P | Literally, to hang; to await (a decision); usually has –ING suffix |
| 20 | 1 | P | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 21 | 1 | P | Low-ranking worker, drudge |
| 22 | 1 | P | Energy, liveliness, noun/verb |
| 23 | 1 | P | Small grayish- or greenish-brown bird that eats flying insects |
| 24 | 1 | P | Multicolored (… Piper of Hamelin) |
| 25 | 1 | P | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 26 | 2 | P | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 27 | 1 | P | Timber from the evergreen tree with cones (Boy Scout's … Derby), compound pangram |
| 28 | 2 | P | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 29 | 1 | P | Scientific name for seals (“feather-footed” in Latin) |
| 30 | 2 | P | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 31 | 1 | P | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 32 | 1 | P | Small lake, or “On Golden…” Henry & Jane Fonda film with Hepburn |
| 33 | 1 | P | Unleavened cornbread, often Southern or Native American |
| 34 | 1 | P | Yankee Doodle went riding into town on this small horse breed |
| 35 | 2 | P | Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 36 | 1 | P | Make a light explosive sound (… the cork, … the question) |
| 37 | 1 | P | Leo, Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 38 | 1 | P | North American Indian ceremony involving feasting, singing and dancing |
| 39 | 2 | W | Cry quietly |
| 40 | 1 | W | What your breath passes through on its way to your lungs, compound |
| 41 | 2 | W | Clean or dry something by rubbing it with a cloth, a piece of paper, or a hand, verb; or a pre-moistened cleaning cloth, noun |
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