Bee Roots for 2022-05-23

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. 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
  • Letters: A/DFLMNR
  • Words: 37
  • Points: 136
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
root #answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11AD5♂ who writes sales pitches, compound
121AF4Distant
21AL5Warning (bell)
31AL7Grass for hay, or Little Rascal
41AN4Uptight, or butt-related; adj.
51AN5Yearly record book
61AR6Warship fleet (Spanish one defeated by England in 1588)
71DA4Condemn to Hell, verb; or exclamation of frustration
81DA4Milder form of above exclamation; or mend holes in socks, verb
91DR4Scottish whisky serving size, ⅛ oz.
101DR5Serious or exciting play, show, film, or events (Don’t be such a … queen!)
111FA4Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb
141FA4Place for growing crops
131FA5Unit of electrical capacitance
151FA8Area where you might want to grow crops, compound made from place for growing crops + opposite of sea
161FL4Caramel-topped custard
171LA4Tibetan Buddhist monk (Dalai …)
181LA4Alight on the ground, verb/noun
201LA4Pig fat for cooking
191LA8Arrival at someplace dry after being at sea, compound made from opposite of sea + plummet
211LL5S Am camel
241MA4Shopping mecca
261MA4♀ parent, slang
301MA4Old-timey schoolteacher honorific
221MA5Term of respect for a ♀, or one who runs a brothel; palindrome
261MA5♀ parent, slang
291MA5Exodus food from the sky
231MA6Crazy ♂, compound (if plural, Don Draper’s retro TV show about 2nd word in today’s set)
271MA6Vertebrate class that has hair, milk, & live birth
251MA7Common duck species, whose males have dark green heads and white collars
281MA7Geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism
311NA4Indiaan flaat breaad
321NA4Nothing, Spanish
331NA4Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog
361RA4Kirk’s Yeoman Janice on Star Trek, or South African $
341RA5Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym
351RA6Covered porch, or hotel brand

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.