- Letters: P/ACGHIN
- Words: 31
- Points: 167
- 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.
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 two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AP | 5 | Large primate without a tail, including gorilla, chimpanzees, and orangutans, noun/verb |
| 2 | 1 | AP | 5 | Bee-related adj. |
| 3 | 1 | CA | 7 | Put a lid or cover on something; or provide a fitting climax or conclusion |
| 4 | 1 | CH | 4 | Become dry or sore (e.g., lips), verb; guy, fella (British) |
| 5 | 1 | CH | 4 | Gambling token you cash in; or a little piece of something; or a short shot in golf, noun/verb |
| 4 | 1 | CH | 8 | Become dry or sore (e.g., lips), verb; guy, fella (British) |
| 5 | 1 | CH | 8 | Gambling token you cash in; or a little piece of something; or a short shot in golf, noun/verb |
| 6 | 1 | GA | 6 | Stare open-mouthed |
| 7 | 1 | NA | 7 | Brief period of sleep during the day |
| 8 | 1 | NI | 7 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 12 | 1 | PA | 4 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 14 | 1 | PA | 4 | Stab of emotion (… of guilt or regret) |
| 17 | 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 10 | 1 | PA | 5 | Heathen; worshiper of the old gods (… rituals) |
| 15 | 1 | PA | 5 | Lose your cool in a crisis (at the disco?) |
| 9 | 1 | PA | 6 | Walk back & forth anxiously |
| 11 | 1 | PA | 6 | Book leaf, noun; or summon with a beeper or announcement, verb |
| 16 | 1 | PA | 6 | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 12 | 1 | PA | 7 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 13 | 1 | PA | 7 | Something you cook food in, noun; try to find gold in a stream, verb; something a critic loves to do, verb |
| 18 | 1 | PI | 4 | A printed type size, or medical condition that makes you want to eat non-foods |
| 24 | 1 | PI | 4 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 22 | 1 | PI | 5 | Tiny vague recipe amount (add a…of salt), or grip between finger & thumb (I …ed myself to ensure it wasn’t a dream) |
| 19 | 1 | PI | 6 | Outdoor dining on a blanket (from a basket?) |
| 23 | 1 | PI | 6 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 25 | 1 | PI | 6 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 26 | 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 20 | 1 | PI | 7 | Animal that is the source of bacon, noun/verb |
| 21 | 1 | PI | 7 | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 24 | 1 | PI | 7 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 22 | 1 | PI | 8 | Tiny vague recipe amount (add a…of salt), or grip between finger & thumb (I …ed myself to ensure it wasn’t a dream) |
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.