Bee Roots for 2022-11-03

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: U/ALNOPR
  • Words: 33
  • Points: 131
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: forbes.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, ...)
21AN5Void a marriage
11AN6Yearly, adj.
31AN7Ring-shaped object, structure, or region
41AU4Supernatural glow encircling a person
51AU5Hearing-related adj.
61AU6Polar lights (… Borealis)
61AU7Polar lights (… Borealis)
71LA6Thrash, beat, or flog (obscure two syllable word that rhymes with stirrup)
81LU4Hawaiian BBQ
91LU4Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun
101LU4Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer
111LU4Roman moon goddess, or nutrition bar brand
121LU5Moon adj. (… eclipse)
131LU6½–moon shaped fingertip base white area (Latin "little moon")
141NO4In grammar, a person, place or thing
151NU4Having no legal or binding force; invalid
161PL6Opposite of singular
181PO4Flow rapidly in a steady stream
171PO7Person with many friends; TV show with many fans
191PR7In grammar, word that refers to people being discussed (I or you, e.g.)
201PU4Tug on, verb
211PU4Soft, wet, shapeless mass (“… Fiction” film), or floating bits of fruit in orange juice
221PU4Immature insect stage
231PU4A knitting stitch, NOT an oyster gem
241PU4Happy cat rumbling sound
221PU5Immature insect stage
261RU5Countryside adj.; opposite of urban
271UL4Forearm bone opposite radius
271UL5Forearm bone opposite radius
251UN6What you do to dice, verb; or Tootsie candy & small bread format, noun
171UN9Person with many friends; TV show with many fans
281UP4Fairy tale-starting preposition (“Once … a time”)
291UP6Furor, turmoil

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.