- Letters: F/AELNTU
- Words: 55
- Points: 257
- Pangrams: 2
|
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 | AF | 8 | Having plenty of money; wealthy |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 7 | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 3 | 1 | EF | 6 | Pretentious, flowery, or weak, adj. |
| 4 | 1 | EF | 8 | Liquid waste or sewage discharged into a river or the sea |
| 6 | 1 | FA | 4 | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 9 | 1 | FA | 4 | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 11 | 1 | FA | 4 | Roman ½ human ½ goat, not a young deer |
| 8 | 1 | FA | 5 | Deadly, adj. (“… Attraction” film) |
| 10 | 1 | FA | 5 | Earth fracture where quakes happen (San Andreas…), or weakness; noun |
| 12 | 1 | FA | 5 | Animals of a particular region, adj. (flora & …) |
| 6 | 1 | FA | 6 | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 7 | 1 | FA | 6 | Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies |
| 12 | 2 | FA | 6 | Animals of a particular region, adj. (flora & …) |
| 5 | 1 | FA | 7 | Fried chickpea balls often served in pita |
| 9 | 1 | FA | 7 | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 13 | 1 | FE | 4 | Achievement requiring great courage, skill, or strength (no easy …), noun |
| 14 | 1 | FE | 4 | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 15 | 1 | FE | 4 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 18 | 1 | FE | 4 | Cloth made by rolling and pressing wool with moisture and/or heat |
| 20 | 1 | FE | 4 | Soft Greek goat cheese, cubed when served |
| 21 | 1 | FE | 4 | Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party” |
| 38 | 1 | FE | 4 | What you cover with a sock |
| 16 | 1 | FE | 5 | ♂, slang (young or little …) |
| 23 | 1 | FE | 5 | Unborn offspring of a mammal, more advanced than an embryo |
| 19 | 1 | FE | 6 | Veg & seed used in cooking, esp. Italian |
| 22 | 1 | FE | 6 | Condition, noun (in fine…); rhymes with whistling teapot |
| 17 | 1 | FE | 7 | Perform oral sex on a ♂, verb |
| 24 | 1 | FL | 4 | Caramel-topped custard |
| 26 | 1 | FL | 4 | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 31 | 1 | FL | 4 | Hopping insect whose bites cause itching in dogs & cats |
| 32 | 1 | FL | 4 | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 34 | 1 | FL | 4 | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 33 | 1 | FL | 5 | Group of ships sailing together, noun; or enema brand; or able to run fast (… of foot) |
| 36 | 1 | FL | 5 | Dryer lint, noun, or what you do to a flat pillow (… up) |
| 37 | 1 | FL | 5 | High-pitched wind instrument (Mozart's opera The Magic …); or tall thin glass for champagne |
| 29 | 1 | FL | 6 | Display in an ostentatious way, especially in order to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance |
| 30 | 1 | FL | 6 | Rolled tortilla resembling a shrill wind instrument, or the instrument in Spanish |
| 35 | 1 | FL | 6 | Able to express oneself easily, especially in a language that is not your first (she is … in three languages) |
| 25 | 1 | FL | 7 | Soft-woven fabric, typically made of wool or cotton and slightly milled and raised; stereotypical Canadian shirt is made of this |
| 26 | 1 | FL | 7 | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 27 | 1 | FL | 8 | Collapsed arch on your sole; cop nickname; reason to get out of the military draft, compound |
| 28 | 1 | FL | 9 | Suffering from buildup of gas in the digestive system that can lead to abdominal discomfort; farting a lot |
| 39 | 1 | FU | 4 | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 40 | 1 | FU | 4 | At capacity (I can’t finish the meal, I’m …), adj. |
| 41 | 1 | FU | 6 | Pouring aid that’s wide at top & narrow at bottom, noun; or guide something through something else |
| 42 | 1 | LE | 4 | Nissan electric car; 4 of these on a clover is lucky |
| 44 | 1 | LE | 4 | ←; remaining (only 1 cookie …); or departed |
| 43 | 1 | LE | 7 | Flier passed out on the street, or to pass them out |
| 45 | 1 | TA | 7 | Fine lustrous silk with crisp texture used for formal gowns |
| 47 | 1 | TU | 4 | Clump of hair that sticks up |
| 46 | 1 | TU | 6 | Footstool or low seat (where Little Miss Muffet sat) |
| 48 | 1 | TU | 7 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
| 18 | 1 | UN | 6 | Cloth made by rolling and pressing wool with moisture and/or heat |
| 48 | 1 | UN | 9 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
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.