- Letters: C/DEINTV
- Words: 50
- Points: 306
- 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 | CE | 4 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 2 | 1 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 1 | 1 | CE | 5 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 3 | 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 3 | 1 | CI | 5 | Quote as evidence |
| 4 | 1 | CI | 5 | Asian & African “cat” used for perfume |
| 5 | 1 | CI | 5 | Popular Honda model; or municipal (adj.) |
| 23 | 1 | DE | 5 | Frozen water |
| 7 | 1 | DE | 6 | The act of making someone believe something that is not true; the act of giving a false impression |
| 9 | 1 | DE | 6 | Proper (Are you …? Can I come in?), adj. |
| 10 | 1 | DE | 6 | Make up one’s mind |
| 12 | 1 | DE | 6 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 14 | 1 | DE | 6 | Something made for a purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment |
| 23 | 1 | DE | 6 | Frozen water |
| 8 | 1 | DE | 7 | Cause someone to believe something that is not true; give a false impression |
| 10 | 1 | DE | 7 | Make up one’s mind |
| 11 | 1 | DE | 7 | Killing of a god, noun |
| 6 | 1 | DE | 8 | A person who has died, in legalese; noun |
| 8 | 1 | DE | 8 | Cause someone to believe something that is not true; give a false impression |
| 12 | 1 | DE | 8 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 13 | 1 | DE | 9 | Someone who solves crimes: fictional ones include Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Columbo |
| 15 | 1 | DI | 4 | Spotted cubes you roll, noun; or chop into cubes, verb |
| 15 | 1 | DI | 5 | Spotted cubes you roll, noun; or chop into cubes, verb |
| 16 | 1 | DI | 8 | Limit your food intake, verb/noun |
| 17 | 1 | ED | 5 | Official order or proclamation |
| 18 | 1 | EI | 7 | Technical term for photographic memory |
| 19 | 1 | EN | 6 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 19 | 1 | EN | 7 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 20 | 1 | EV | 5 | Kick out of an apartment |
| 22 | 1 | EV | 6 | Formal verb: reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling) (his words … his excitement) |
| 20 | 2 | EV | 7 | Kick out of an apartment |
| 22 | 1 | EV | 7 | Formal verb: reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling) (his words … his excitement) |
| 21 | 1 | EV | 8 | Body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true, noun/verb |
| 21 | 1 | EV | 9 | Body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true, noun/verb |
| 23 | 1 | IC | 4 | Frozen water |
| 27 | 1 | IN | 6 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 28 | 1 | IN | 6 | Legal term for formally charging with a crime |
| 27 | 1 | IN | 7 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 9 | 1 | IN | 8 | Proper (Are you …? Can I come in?), adj. |
| 26 | 1 | IN | 8 | Event or occurrence |
| 28 | 1 | IN | 8 | Legal term for formally charging with a crime |
| 24 | 1 | IN | 9 | Something that motivates you (there’s no … to conserve water) |
| 25 | 1 | IN | 9 | Statistical frequency or occurrence of something bad (disease, crime, e.g.), noun |
| 29 | 1 | IN | 9 | Abusive language used to express blame or to hurt (a stream of …) |
| 30 | 1 | NI | 4 | Pleasant in manner, or city in SE France |
| 31 | 1 | NI | 5 | Your sibling’s daughter |
| 32 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 33 | 1 | VI | 4 | Bad habit, or “Miami …” police show |
| 34 | 1 | VI | 10 | Vengeful |
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.