- Letters: T/AEGLOV
- Words: 54
- Points: 242
- Pangrams: 1
|
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.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
| |
|
Table content
|
| 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 | AG | 5 | Banded quartz, perhaps a toy marble |
| 2 | 1 | AG | 5 | Shoelace tip protector |
| 4 | 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 5 | 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 6 | 1 | EA | 6 | A bald one is the national bird |
| 7 | 1 | EL | 5 | Make someone ecstatically happy, verb |
| 8 | 1 | EL | 7 | Raise up, verb |
| 11 | 1 | GA | 4 | Hinged barrier, or airplane boarding area |
| 10 | 1 | GA | 6 | Slang for a clumsy or oafish person (“You big …”) |
| 9 | 1 | GA | 7 | French flat fruit pie |
| 12 | 1 | GA | 7 | Medium-paced French dance in quadruple meter, popular in the 18th century, marked by raising rather than sliding of the feet |
| 14 | 1 | GE | 4 | Yiddish for $, bet during dreidel game |
| 13 | 1 | GE | 6 | Italian ice cream; limone is my fav |
| 15 | 1 | GE | 6 | Add locational data to a photo, video, or social media post |
| 16 | 1 | GL | 5 | Be smug in your success or your opponent’s misfortune, verb |
| 17 | 1 | GL | 7 | Of a sound produced by the opening between the vocal folds; a …stop is the sound of the T in “cat,” e.g.; adj. |
| 18 | 1 | GO | 4 | Alt milk source (nannies, billies, & kids) |
| 20 | 1 | GO | 5 | Have to do so, slang contraction (I’ve … run) |
| 19 | 1 | GO | 6 | Pointed beard |
| 21 | 1 | LA | 4 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 22 | 1 | LA | 5 | Coffee with espresso & steamed milk |
| 23 | 1 | LE | 6 | General or governor of an ancient Roman province, or their deputy; or a member of the clergy, esp. a cardinal, representing the Pope |
| 24 | 1 | LE | 6 | Musical direction indicating that the notes are to be played or sung smoothly & connected |
| 25 | 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 26 | 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 27 | 1 | OV | 5 | Adjective for egg shape (biology) |
| 28 | 1 | TA | 4 | Story (fairy…), NOT what dogs wag; noun |
| 29 | 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 30 | 1 | TA | 6 | Rat out your sibling to your parents |
| 32 | 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 31 | 1 | TA | 10 | Someone who rats out a sibling (compound) |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 4 | Blue-green color, or a duck with a stripe of that color |
| 34 | 1 | TE | 4 | Nipple |
| 36 | 1 | TE | 4 | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 35 | 1 | TE | 8 | Abstain from drinking alcohol (compound) |
| 37 | 1 | TE | 8 | Revealing, compound adj.; or indication, compound noun (Poe’s “The … Heart”) |
| 38 | 1 | TO | 4 | Wrap worn in ancient Rome (… party) |
| 40 | 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 42 | 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 43 | 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 46 | 1 | TO | 4 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 45 | 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 6 | Key or command that switches between two modes, such as the caps lock key, noun/verb |
| 44 | 1 | TO | 6 | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 41 | 1 | TO | 8 | Barrier across the road that raises when you pay the usage fee (compound) |
| 47 | 1 | VA | 5 | Parking attendant, or one who helps you dress |
| 51 | 1 | VE | 4 | Presidential rejection of a Congressional bill, noun/verb |
| 50 | 1 | VE | 6 | Soft fabric, developing antler cover, or Lou Reed’s “… Underground” rock band |
| 48 | 1 | VE | 7 | Relating to plants |
| 49 | 1 | VE | 8 | Live in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way |
| 52 | 1 | VO | 4 | Unit of electric potential (110 … socket) |
| 54 | 1 | VO | 4 | What you do on Election Day, noun/verb |
| 53 | 1 | VO | 7 | Electromotive force (… meter); in the US it’s 110 at a typical socket; pangram noun |
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.