- Letters: E/AHMPTY
- Words: 55
- Points: 183
- 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 | 1 | A | Throat-clearing, attention-getting sound |
| 2 | 1 | A | Make an effort to achieve or complete something, verb/noun |
| 3 | 2 | E | Ability to sense and share the feelings of another, pangram |
| 4 | 1 | E | Containing nothing, adj.; or remove all contents, verb |
| 5 | 1 | E | Fencing sword |
| 6 | 1 | E | Cuspid; canine (fang) below your peeper (I’d give my … for); Possibly only in Spelling Bee, can also be singular, compound |
| 7 | 1 | H | Wedge-shaped carpal bone |
| 8 | 1 | H | Dislike intensely, verb/noun |
| 9 | 1 | H | Stack in a disorderly pile, verb/noun |
| 10 | 1 | H | Warm up in the oven, verb; or extreme warmth, noun, adv. form is a pangram |
| 11 | 1 | H | Candy bar with toffee & milk chocolate, actor Ledger, or British field |
| 12 | 1 | H | Iron-containing biological compound (in blood, e.g.) |
| 13 | 1 | H | Cannabis plant, or the fiber from it used to make rope |
| 14 | 1 | H | Intense promotion, noun or verb (“Don’t believe the …”) |
| 15 | 2 | M | Fellow member (cast-…) or joint occupant (room-…) |
| 16 | 1 | M | Dull finish on paint or photos |
| 17 | 1 | M | Chaos, disorder, havoc (complete & utter …) |
| 18 | 2 | M | Animal flesh for consumption (beef, ham, etc.) |
| 19 | 1 | M | Encounter (I’m supposed to … him in the park) |
| 20 | 1 | M | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 21 | 1 | M | Beyond prefix, greek |
| 22 | 1 | M | Dispense justice (“… out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 23 | 1 | M | Slang abbr. of addictive stimulant (crystal …) |
| 24 | 1 | P | Chopped liver (… de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head |
| 25 | 1 | P | Give $ in exchange for goods or services, verb/noun |
| 26 | 2 | P | Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg |
| 27 | 1 | P | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 28 | 1 | P | Energy, liveliness, noun/verb |
| 29 | 1 | P | Trivial (… crime) (think late “Heartbreakers” singer Tom) |
| 30 | 1 | T | Not wild, adj./verb |
| 31 | 1 | T | Adhesive strip |
| 32 | 1 | T | Engine part that converts camshaft rotation into linear motion |
| 33 | 1 | T | Group of sports players (Yankees, e.g.), noun; … up, verb |
| 34 | 1 | T | A fellow player in your group, compound |
| 35 | 1 | T | Nipple |
| 36 | 1 | T | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 37 | 2 | T | Native Am conical hut; Spelling Bee accepts 3 spellings |
| 38 | 1 | T | What you use to chew, plural |
| 39 | 1 | T | When the things you use to chew start to emerge, you chew on everything, and you drool all the time |
| 40 | 1 | T | Office worker fill-in, slang abbr. |
| 41 | 1 | T | Indonesian dish made by deep-frying fermented soybeans |
| 42 | 1 | T | Entice (as a donut to a dieter, e.g.), verb |
| 43 | 1 | T | Archaic form of “you” |
| 44 | 1 | T | Pronoun for people you previously mentioned (I bathed the kids & put … to bed) |
| 45 | 1 | T | Subject of a talk, or an idea that recurs in a work of art, noun (and rarely, verb - gerund is a pangram) |
| 46 | 1 | T | 8th Greek letter, Θ |
| 47 | 1 | T | Plural non-gendered pronoun (… were delicious candies) |
| 48 | 1 | T | Low-growing aromatic plant of the mint family (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and …) |
| 49 | 1 | T | What you do on a keyboard |
| 50 | 1 | Y | Informal affirmative reply |
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