- Letters: B/DEMNOT
- Words: 45
- Points: 196
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 3 | 1 | BE | 4 | Borscht veg |
| 4 | 1 | BE | 4 | Shape into a curve, or Oregon city |
| 5 | 1 | BE | 4 | Crooked, adj., or past tense verb for something un-straightened |
| 6 | 1 | BE | 5 | Japanese lunchbox; add a vowel to end of above |
| 1 | 1 | BE | 6 | Furniture you sleep on |
| 8 | 1 | BO | 4 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 9 | 1 | BO | 4 | It explodes, noun/verb |
| 12 | 1 | BO | 4 | Agent 007, Brit spy James |
| 13 | 1 | BO | 4 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 17 | 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 19 | 1 | BO | 4 | Sound of explosion or subwoofer |
| 20 | 1 | BO | 4 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 21 | 1 | BO | 4 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 8 | 1 | BO | 5 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 10 | 1 | BO | 5 | Frozen dome-shaped dessert similar to above |
| 13 | 1 | BO | 5 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 16 | 1 | BO | 5 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 7 | 1 | BO | 6 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 9 | 1 | BO | 6 | It explodes, noun/verb |
| 11 | 1 | BO | 6 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 12 | 1 | BO | 6 | Agent 007, Brit spy James |
| 14 | 1 | BO | 6 | Hat tied under chin, or Britspeak for car hood |
| 15 | 1 | BO | 6 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 18 | 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 19 | 1 | BO | 6 | Sound of explosion or subwoofer |
| 21 | 1 | BO | 6 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 22 | 1 | BO | 6 | Baby foot covering |
| 23 | 1 | BO | 6 | String of connected hijacked computers that send spam & launch attacks |
| 24 | 1 | BO | 6 | Underside, or slang for ass |
| 24 | 1 | BO | 8 | Underside, or slang for ass |
| 25 | 1 | DE | 4 | Money you borrowed |
| 13 | 1 | DE | 6 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 13 | 1 | DE | 7 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 27 | 1 | EB | 4 | Black, poetic; and/or black wood (“… & Ivory”) |
| 26 | 1 | EB | 5 | Recede, especially |
| 28 | 1 | EM | 5 | Plant into (e.g., wartime journalist in a combat unit) |
| 28 | 1 | EM | 8 | Plant into (e.g., wartime journalist in a combat unit) |
| 32 | 1 | EN | 6 | Burial vault (Who’s in Grant’s …?) |
| 32 | 1 | EN | 8 | Burial vault (Who’s in Grant’s …?) |
| 32 | 1 | EN | 10 | Burial vault (Who’s in Grant’s …?) |
| 29 | 1 | MO | 6 | Large crowd of disorderly people |
| 30 | 1 | NO | 4 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 31 | 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 32 | 1 | TO | 4 | Burial vault (Who’s in Grant’s …?) |
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.