- Letters: U/AGNORT
- Words: 42
- Points: 190
- Pangrams: 3
|
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
| |
|
Table content
|
| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AR | 8 | Small floating octopus; or one of Jason's crew in mythology |
| 1 | AU | 5 | Portend |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Parent’s sister |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Supernatural glow encircling a person |
| 1 | AU | 6 | Polar lights (… Borealis) |
| 1 | AU | 4 | Car, abbr., or “self” prefix |
| 1 | GA | 10 | Enormous, based on Rabelais' voracious giant |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age (rhymes with what ghosts do) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Swollen foot disease from excess uric acid; Ben Franklin had it |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Paste for filling gaps in tiles |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Short & low (esp. pig) sound; or slang term for lowly soldier or worker |
| 1 | GU | 5 | Bat droppings |
| 1 | GU | 4 | Cluster bean |
| 1 | GU | 9 | Formal promise, typically in writing, that certain conditions will be fulfilled, especially that something defective will be repaired or replaced |
| 1 | GU | 4 | Indian spiritual teacher |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Candy made from sugar or honey, nuts, and egg white |
| 1 | NO | 4 | In grammar, a person, place or thing |
| 1 | OR | 9 | Four-handed great ape with orange fur |
| 1 | OU | 5 | $ spent, to a CPA, literal opposite of “income”; or, in gerund form, extroverted, compound |
| 1 | OU | 6 | Have better or more weapons (pistols), or surpass in power, compound |
| 1 | OU | 5 | Closing show music (antonym begins with IN–) |
| 2 | OU | 6,6 | Sprint more quickly or farther in a footrace than someone else, compound |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Highly seasoned meat cut into small pieces and stewed with vegetables |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Cheap liquor (literally, what it does to your stomach), compound |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Disorderly retreat, or decisive defeat |
| 1 | RU | 4 | Make a bell sound, verb/noun; encircle, verb/noun |
| 1 | RU | 6 | Slight error in rotating tool, compound |
| 1 | RU | 4 | Smallest of the litter |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Provoke with words |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Not slack, as a rope, adj. |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Take a guided one of these in a foreign city (on a … bus?) adj/noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Common game fish (rainbow …, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 6 | School-skipper |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Chicken of the sea (Ahi …) |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Change direction, verb/noun/adj. (use your … signal when driving!) |
| 1 | TU | 7 | Number of people who show up at an event (we had a great … last night for our poetry reading), compound |
| 1 | TU | 5 | Private instructor |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Identification label, noun/verb; or kids' game (…, you're it) |
| 1 | UN | 4 | Archaic preposition (Handel’s Messiah “For … us a child is born”) |
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