- Letters: O/DEFILV
- Words: 54
- Points: 232
- 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 | 2 | D | Pass to someone at a lower level |
| 2 | 1 | D | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 3 | 1 | D | 1–way semiconductor with 2 terminals |
| 4 | 1 | D | Extinct bird; or stupid person, slang |
| 5 | 2 | D | Remove a hat or clothing |
| 6 | 2 | D | Pineapple brand, noun; or distribute (… out portions of food) |
| 7 | 2 | D | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 8 | 1 | D | Move on a mobile platform, for example a movie camera, noun/verb |
| 9 | 2 | D | Scribble or draw absentmindedly |
| 10 | 1 | D | Pigeon family, chocolate brand, or jumped headfirst into water |
| 36 | 1 | D | Not valid or legally binding; or, completely empty |
| 11 | 2 | E | Develop gradually (Darwin said that humans and apes …d from a common ancestor), verb, negated past tense is a pangram |
| 12 | 1 | F | Multiplied by the number of fingers on one hand, compound pangram |
| 13 | 1 | F | Sheet of ice atop the ocean, homophone of moving liquid |
| 14 | 2 | F | Weather event involving rivers and streams overflowing, noun/verb (it was a 100-year …), gerund form is a pangram |
| 15 | 2 | F | Thin aluminum sheet for wrapping leftovers, noun; or thwart, verb (Curses! …ed again) |
| 16 | 2 | F | What you do to sheets after laundry, or quit a hand in poker, gerund form is a pangram |
| 17 | 1 | F | A book (A Shakespeare first … is quite valuable), a page in a book, or a book size; from Latin for “leaf” |
| 18 | 1 | F | What you eat; victuals |
| 19 | 1 | F | Slang for eating & cooking enthusiast |
| 20 | 2 | F | Unwise person, court jester tarot card, noun; or to trick or deceive, verb |
| 21 | 1 | I | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 22 | 1 | I | Compound made with element 53 |
| 23 | 1 | L | Vein of metal ore (mother…) |
| 24 | 2 | L | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 25 | 2 | L | The ♥ in I♥NY, or “zero” in tennis, negated past tense is a pangram |
| 26 | 1 | O | Murder (slang); gerund form also means the near future |
| 27 | 1 | O | Viscous liquid used for lubrication, noun/verb; (food) a fat that's liquid at room temperature |
| 28 | 1 | O | Having lived for a long time |
| 29 | 1 | O | Margarine |
| 30 | 1 | O | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 31 | 1 | O | Small oval fruit with a hard pit, green when unripe, brownish black when ripe |
| 32 | 1 | O | Skateboard jump, or Stan’s slapstick partner |
| 33 | 1 | O | Egg shaped |
| 34 | 2 | V | Good friend of audio; the V in A/V |
| 35 | 1 | V | 6–stringed upright Renaissance fiddle |
| 36 | 2 | V | Not valid or legally binding; or, completely empty |
| 37 | 1 | V | Thin, semitransparent fabric |
| 38 | 1 | V | Small burrowing rodent AKA field mouse |
| 39 | 1 | V | Haitian religion with pincushion dolls |
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