- Letters: C/AINRTU
- Words: 50
- Points: 285
- Pangrams: 2
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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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| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Childish or playful tomfoolery, usually plural |
| 1 | AN | 9 | North Pole adj. (… Circle or Ocean) |
| 1 | AR | 6 | 1 of 2 classes in a tarot pack (major & minor), a mystery or deep secret, or specialized knowledge, noun |
| 1 | AR | 6 | North Pole adj. (… Circle or Ocean) |
| 1 | AR | 6 | Yellow daisy used to treat bruises |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 2 | AT | 7,10 | Entice, lure, or evoke (… attention; opposites …), verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Pile of commemorative stones, or terrier (dog) breed |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Tilt, or “I am unable to do so” contraction; hypocritical and sanctimonious talk |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Medium-length narrative music for voice & instruments, from Italian for “sung” |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Spanish bar, or the Mos Eisley bar on Tatooine in “Star Wars” |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Unit of weight for gems, NOT bunny food |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Shopping trolley you push |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Eye cloudiness, or waterfall |
| 1 | CI | 5 | “Around” when used before a year, Latin |
| 1 | CI | 7 | Closed electrical path (breaker), or ○ journey with same start & end |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Cloud forming wispy streaks (“mare's tails”) at high altitude |
| 1 | CI | 6 | Tree genus that includes lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit, or the fruit of those trees |
| 1 | CR | 6 | Scientific name for skull |
| 1 | CR | 6 | Fault-finder (“everyone’s a …”), or arts & dining reviewer |
| 1 | CU | 7 | Dried fruit similar to a raisin, NOT up to date |
| 1 | CU | 4 | Rudely brief, adj. |
| 1 | CU | 7 | Fabric used to cover a window |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Recite a spell or a prayer; chant or intone, verb, usually occurs in its -ation noun form |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Become subject to (something unwelcome or unpleasant) as a result of one's own behavior or action (… debt) |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete (I left with my dignity …), adj. |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Drug cop, slang |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Vitamin B3 |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Adj. for element 7, most abundant one in air (acid) |
| 1 | RI | 5 | Poison from castor beans, NOT a pilaf grain |
| 1 | RU | 5 | Letter of an ancient Germanic alphabet |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Reserved or uncommunicative, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 2 | TA | 6,9 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Buddhist mystical text, related to yoga word (“Om”) |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Large land area, or body passage (“digestive …”) |
| 1 | TU | 5 | Upper body garment in a uniform or in ancient Greece & Rome |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Divide into pieces with a knife or other sharp implement, verb/noun |
| 1 | UR | 4 | Medical adj. for pee (… acid) |
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.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
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