Bee Roots for 2021-11-23

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. The TL;DR about the site comes after the table. The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.

Past clues are available here

Today's puzzle

Table content

root #answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11AF5Stick something onto something else (ends in “repair” synonym), verb
11AF7Stick something onto something else (ends in “repair” synonym), verb
21DA4Silly, foolish (British)
31DE4Unable to hear
51DE4Neatly skillful, quick & clever (...footwork)
111DE5Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies
41DE6Win a victory over someone in a battle, verb/noun
61DE6Openly resist or refuse to obey
71DE7Treat someone or something as a god
41DE8Win a victory over someone in a battle, verb/noun
111DE8Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies
81ED7Instruct or improve someone, morally or intellectually
91EF6Pretentious, flowery, or weak, adj.
101FA4Gradually become faint
121FA4Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours
101FA5Gradually become faint
121FA5Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours
131FA5Send a document over telephone lines, verb/noun
141FE4Achievement requiring great courage, skill, or strength (no easy…), noun
151FE4Give a meal to
161FE4Soft Greek goat cheese, cubed when served
171FE4Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party”
251FE4What you cover with a sock
171FE5Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party”
181FE5Extremely foul-smelling, adj.
191FI4Italian car brand (part of Chrysler), formal decree, or arbitrary order
201FI4Medieval for feudal land or area of control; often has –DOM suffix
211FI4Small flute used with a drum in military bands, noun/verb
211FI5Small flute used with a drum in military bands, noun/verb
231FI5Repair, verb/noun; fasten securely in a particular position
221FI6Of suitable quality (all the news that's ... to print), adj.; be of the right shape and size, verb/noun
241FI6Attach obsessively
241FI7Attach obsessively
261TA7Fine lustrous silk with crisp texture used for formal gowns
271TI4Petty quarrel, or computer image format

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech 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.

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

Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.