- Letters: M/CDEILO
- Words: 59
- Points: 250
- Pangrams: 3
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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 | CL | 5 | Literary term for a region with ref. to prevailing weather (sunny …, e.g.), NOT scale a ladder |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Travel toward a particular place, tell your dog to move toward you, or slang for “to orgasm” |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Funny genre, “… Central” “Daily Show” network |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Fancy word for “toilet,” or cabinet or chair containing one |
| 2 | DE | 4,6 | Consider (I … it a great success) |
| 2 | DE | 4,6 | Show off, slang abbr. (a … model impressed investors); or demolish, slang abbrev. |
| 1 | DI | 6 | Faintly lit, adjective/verb |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Coin worth 10 cents |
| 2 | DO | 4,5 | Rounded vault on a roof |
| 2 | DO | 8,9 | Legally, your permanent home, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 2 | DO | 4,6 | Terrible fate (they fell to their …), or pioneering 1st person shooter game |
| 2 | EM | 5,6 | Master of Ceremonies (sounded-out initials), slang noun/verb |
| 1 | ID | 5 | Slang phrase particular to a language (“raining cats & dogs”), noun |
| 2 | LI | 4,5 | Small green citrus fruit |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Chauffeured, stretched car, slang abbr. |
| 2 | LO | 4,6 | Cloth weaving device |
| 2 | ME | 6,7 | Interfere without the right to do so (don’t … in my affairs!) |
| 2 | ME | 5,6 | Soldier who treats wounded |
| 2 | ME | 4,6 | Combine (Vulcan mind …) |
| 1 | ME | 5 | Confusing scuffle |
| 1 | ME | 7 | Principal musical theme, or pleasing sequence of notes, noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 2 | ME | 4,5 | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Office note abbr. |
| 1 | MI | 4 | 3 blind rodents in rhyme |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Between the edges (… of the road) |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Computer music protocol, calf-length skirt, or noon in French |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Not severe (a … case of the flu), or gentle (Clark Kent, the …-mannered reporter) |
| 1 | MI | 4 | 5,280 feet, or 1.6 km |
| 2 | MI | 4,6 | Wheat or pepper grinder |
| 2 | MI | 4,5 | Silent performer |
| 1 | MI | 5 | Old stencil duplicator, abbr. (missing –graph suffix) |
| 1 | MI | 5 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Manner in which something happens (… of operation), or fashion (pie à la …) |
| 2 | MO | 5,7 | Strut down a runway showing off new fashion |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Device to get a computer online (cable or DSL …) |
| 2 | MO | 4,6 | To work hard (archaic); homophone of bris snipper |
| 2 | MO | 4,6 | Fungal growth, or Jell–O shaper |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Burrowing blind rodent, or embedded spy |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Mobster’s ♀ |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Sound a cow makes |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Emotional state (happy, angry, sad, etc.) |
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