- Letters: C/EINOTX
- Words: 50
- Points: 301
- 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.
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
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 2 | 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 4 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 17 | 1 | CO | 4 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 3 | 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 4 | 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 6 | Kid’s imaginary germ, or a body louse |
| 18 | 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 7 | Excessive pride in oneself |
| 7 | 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 7 | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb + noun |
| 10 | 1 | CO | 7 | (of a word or fact) imply, verb + its resulting noun ("cheap" has a negative…) |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 7 | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “table of…s”) |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 7 | Surroundings (the meaning “in” a sentence) |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 9 | One of the world's seven main bodies of land |
| 7 | 1 | CO | 10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 10 | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb + noun |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 10 | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “table of…s”) |
| 13 | 1 | CO | 10 | Ability to control bowel movements or bladder functions |
| 19 | 1 | EC | 7 | Region of transition between 2 biological communities, starts with “green” prefix |
| 20 | 1 | EN | 6 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 22 | 1 | EX | 4 | Corp. bigwig abbr. |
| 21 | 1 | EX | 6 | Cause strong feelings of enthusiasm |
| 23 | 1 | EX | 6 | Strange (Joe, perhaps?) |
| 24 | 1 | EX | 7 | (Of a species or volcano) has died out (gone…), adj. |
| 24 | 1 | EX | 10 | (Of a species or volcano) has died out (gone…), adj. |
| 25 | 1 | IC | 4 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 25 | 1 | IC | 6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 26 | 1 | IN | 6 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 27 | 1 | IN | 8 | Guiltless |
| 27 | 1 | IN | 9 | Guiltless |
| 14 | 1 | IN | 11 | One of the world's seven main bodies of land |
| 13 | 1 | IN | 12 | Ability to control bowel movements or bladder functions |
| 28 | 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 29 | 1 | NE | 6 | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 30 | 1 | NI | 4 | Pleasant in manner, or city in SE France |
| 32 | 1 | NI | 5 | Your sibling’s daughter |
| 31 | 1 | NI | 8 | Addictive substance in tobacco |
| 33 | 1 | NO | 5 | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 34 | 1 | NO | 6 | Become aware of, verb; or written announcement (board) |
| 40 | 1 | NO | 8 | Poisonous, adj.; or Britney Spears hit |
| 35 | 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 36 | 1 | ON | 4 | A single time (they deliver…a week) |
| 37 | 1 | TE | 8 | Earth plates that shift & cause quakes, adj. |
| 38 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
| 40 | 1 | TO | 5 | Poisonous, adj.; or Britney Spears hit |
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.