- Letters: L/ADGHIN
- Words: 57
- Points: 305
- 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 | AD | 7 | Confuse, muddle |
| 1 | AI | 6 | Be sick |
| 2 | AL | 4,5 | Pond scum |
| 2 | AL | 5,8 | Sync up positionally (… the 2 holes so you can put a screw through them) |
| 1 | AN | 7 | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | DA | 6 | Mexican & Central Am. flowering plant (“Black …” 2006 de Palma film noir) |
| 1 | DA | 8 | Hang or swing loosely |
| 2 | DI | 4,7 | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob |
| 1 | DI | 8 | Pass time aimlessly or unproductively |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 8 | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 2 | GA | 4,7 | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 1 | GA | 8 | The world of criminal groups |
| 1 | GA | 8 | Lanky & bumbling; gerund (think a newborn foal trying to stand; starts with a group of thugs such as the Crips; the more common term ends in –LY) |
| 1 | GA | 7 | Nerve cluster |
| 1 | GI | 8 | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 2 | GI | 4,7 | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 2 | GI | 4,7 | Fish breathing organ |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Pleased, delighted |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Organ in the body that secretes chemicals |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 1 | GL | 7 | What an engineless plane does (hanging optional), or dental floss brand |
| 1 | HA | 8 | Dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something |
| 2 | HA | 4,7 | Frozen rain “stone,” noun; or summon a taxi, verb |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Kosher in Islam |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty |
| 1 | HA | 8 | Manage a situation, verb; something you pull to open a drawer, or something you hold to carry a suitcase, noun |
| 1 | HA | 8 | Tiny, torn skin on your fingertip, compound |
| 1 | HI | 8 | Mountainous region, esp. north of Glasgow, compound pangram |
| 2 | HI | 4,7 | What Jack & Jill went up |
| 1 | ID | 6 | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but in gear |
| 1 | IN | 8 | The phase of breathing that expands your chest |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Not on the coast |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Load cargo (root is archaic, derivatives are still in use) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Long-handled utensil for serving soup |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Fall behind, verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Hawaiian island or porch |
| 2 | LA | 4,7 | Alight on the ground, verb/noun |
| 2 | LA | 4,4 | Put something down |
| 1 | LI | 6 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 2 | NA | 4,7 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 1 | NI | 8 | Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt) |
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