- Letters: E/CBDOTY
- Words: 50
- Points: 208
- 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 | Borscht veg |
| 1 | 1 | BE | 6 | Furniture you sleep on, noun/verb |
| 5 | 1 | BO | 4 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 4 | 1 | BO | 5 | Italian game similar to lawn bowling |
| 5 | 1 | BO | 5 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 6 | 1 | BO | 5 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 3 | 1 | BO | 6 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 7 | 1 | BO | 6 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 8 | 1 | BO | 6 | Baby foot covering |
| 9 | 1 | BO | 9 | Refuse to buy as a protest, verb/noun |
| 10 | 1 | BY | 4 | Computer memory unit, NOT nibble |
| 11 | 1 | CE | 4 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 11 | 1 | CE | 5 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 4 | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 13 | 1 | CO | 4 | ♀ student, or mixed ♂ & ♀ school, slang abbr. |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 4 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 5 | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 5 | Soft murmur made by a dove or pigeon, noun/verb |
| 16 | 1 | CO | 6 | Roadrunner foe in cartoons |
| 17 | 1 | DE | 4 | Money you borrowed |
| 18 | 1 | DE | 4 | Chrysler Bldg. style (Art …) |
| 21 | 1 | DE | 4 | Property ownership paper, noun; or to transfer ownership, verb |
| 20 | 1 | DE | 5 | Imitation bird or animal for hunting, noun; or lure into a trap, or distraction, present + past verbs (2 words) |
| 12 | 1 | DE | 6 | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 19 | 1 | DE | 6 | Extract the essence of something by heating or boiling |
| 21 | 1 | DE | 6 | Property ownership paper, noun; or to transfer ownership, verb |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 6 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 12 | 1 | DE | 7 | Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it |
| 20 | 1 | DE | 7 | Imitation bird or animal for hunting, noun; or lure into a trap, or distraction, present + past verbs (2 words) |
| 19 | 1 | DE | 8 | Extract the essence of something by heating or boiling |
| 22 | 1 | DE | 8 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 24 | 1 | DO | 4 | Be uncritically fond (she …s on her grandkids) |
| 24 | 1 | DO | 5 | Be uncritically fond (she …s on her grandkids) |
| 23 | 1 | DO | 6 | Small round mark, noun/verb (… the i's and cross the t's) |
| 25 | 1 | DY | 4 | Substance used to change the color of something, noun/verb |
| 26 | 1 | EB | 5 | Recede, especially in reference to the tide |
| 27 | 1 | ED | 4 | Water swirl, NOT clothier Bauer |
| 28 | 1 | EY | 4 | Organ of vision |
| 29 | 1 | OB | 4 | Heed, verb (unlike a cat, a well-trained dog will … commands to “stay” & “sit”) |
| 30 | 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 29 | 1 | OB | 6 | Heed, verb (unlike a cat, a well-trained dog will … commands to “stay” & “sit”) |
| 31 | 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 32 | 1 | OO | 6 | Immature ovum cell |
| 34 | 1 | TE | 4 | Short stick that holds up a golf ball |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 5 | 1st Pres. Roosevelt, stuffed bear, or ♀ all-in–1 undergarment |
| 35 | 1 | TO | 4 | Appendage at the front of your foot (most have five per foot) |
| 37 | 1 | TO | 4 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 37 | 1 | TO | 5 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 38 | 1 | TO | 5 | Plaything, noun/verb |
| 36 | 1 | TO | 6 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
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