Bee Roots for 2022-11-16

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: L/BGHITU
  • Words: 24
  • Points: 68
  • 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, ...)
11BI4Invoice, or actor Murray
21BL6Plant disease, typically one caused by fungi, noun/verb (Chestnut …); or
41BU4Light-producing globe, head of garlic, or what you plant to get a tulip
51BU4♂ cow
31BU5Erected or assembled (“The House That Jack…”), past tense verb; or slang adj. for muscular
61GI4Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79
71GI4Fish breathing organ
81GL4Insincere & shallow
91GL4Drink or pour liquid & make a hollow sound, verb
101GL4Excess of supply in relation to demand, noun
121GU4Noisy shore bird
111GU5Fact of having committed a crime (“I plead …y Your Honor”)
141HI4What Jack & Jill went up
151HI4Sword or dagger handle
131HI9Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb
161HU4Base of ship, or skin of nuts
191LI4Singsong accent
171LI5Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb
181LI9Thomas Edison's greatest hit, compound pangram
201LU4Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun
211LU4Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer
221TI4Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb
231TI4Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at)
241TI5Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. 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