Bee Roots for 2023-06-10

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: B/ACDEIT
  • Words: 49
  • Points: 250
  • Pangrams: 3
Source: tasteatlas.com

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1AB5Bead calculator
2AB5,6Become less intense (the storm suddenly …d)
2AB8,9Step down, especially, give up a throne, pangram
1AB4Poetic for “in the sack” (sleeping), adv.
2AB4,7Help commit a crime
2AB5,6Accept or act in accordance with a decision or law; or tolerate something; or continue without fading (…ing love)
1BA5Sound a sheep makes, noun/verb
1BA4Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves
1BA4Infant, slugger Ruth, or pig film
1BA6Infant, noun; or treat like one, verb
1BA6Villain or criminal in a story or movie, slang
1BA4(Archaic) past tense verb of making an auction offer or saying farewell or adieu
2BA4,6(Put a) worm on a fishing hook; verb/noun
1BA6What you use to hit the ball in games such as baseball or cricket; flying mammal
2BA4,5(Of a hawk) flap wings to escape, homophone of worm on a fish hook
2BE4,6Drop of sweat, or small decorative object (for a necklace, e.g.)
1BE4Stir or strike vigorously, or trounce in a contest
1BE6Furniture you sleep on, noun/verb
1BE4Borscht veg
1BE42nd Greek letter, ß
2BE6,7Literary synonym for happen (Woe … the villain)
2BI4,5Remain or stay somewhere, archaic verb (you must go and I must …)
1BI5French bathroom fixture
1BI4Use teeth to cut into food (take a … out of the apple)
1CA6Taxi, noun; or travel in a taxi, verb
1CA6Taxi driver, slang
1CI8Italian “slipper” bread
1DA6Press lightly with a piece of absorbent material in order to clean or dry something, verb; or a small amount of something, noun (Brylcreem's "A little …'ll do ya!")
1DE8An idle, feckless, or disreputable person; or someone who tries to avoid paying their debts, especially child support (… dad)
2DE6,7Formal discussion in which opposing arguments are put forward, noun/verb
2DE5,7Entry recording an amount owed
1DE4Money you borrowed
1DI8Person with a disease that causes chronically high blood sugar, pangram
1EB5Recede, especially in reference to the tide
1TA6Mark with a projecting piece of material, verb/noun; or identify as suitable for a position, verb (Biden …ed Harris as his running mate)
2TI5,6Shin bone
1TI6Small piece of tasty food or gossip

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.

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