- Letters: I/AGHLRT
- Words: 58
- Points: 227
- 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 | AG | 5 | Italian slang for heartburn from stress |
| 1 | AI | 8 | Not allowing gases to escape or pass through; or without weaknesses, compound adj. (… alibi) |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Get down from a train, bus or other form of transport, verb; or (about a bird) land after flying |
| 1 | AL | 7 | Satisfactory but not especially good, acceptable, pangram adj. (The Who's "The Kids are …") |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Opera solo |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Seed covering |
| 1 | AR | 10 | Joint pain, pangram |
| 2 | AT | 5,6 | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 1 | AT | 8 | Congratulations for a young ♀ (slang) |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | A person's way of walking, or an animal’s pace (esp. horse); NOT a hinged fence opening |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Fish breathing organ |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Encircle with a belt |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Young ♀ |
| 1 | GI | 5 | Measurement around the middle of something, esp. a person’s waist |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 1 | GR | 5 | Cup that the Round Table knights tried to find (The Holy …) |
| 1 | GR | 5 | BBQ cooker; or interrogate, slang |
| 1 | GR | 4 | Small loose particles of stone or sand, or courage & resolve; “True …” 1969 & 2010 Western |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Frozen rain “stone,” noun; or summon a taxi, verb |
| 1 | HA | 4 | “Age of Aquarius” ‘60s nude hippie rock musical, or what grows on your scalp |
| 1 | HI | 4 | Opposite of low; or greater than normal (… definition TV), or stoned (… as a kite), adj. |
| 1 | HI | 9 | Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb |
| 1 | HI | 8 | Move at top speed, often when retreating or fleeing, compound verb (we've gotta … it outta here) |
| 1 | HI | 4 | What Jack & Jill went up |
| 1 | HI | 4 | Sword or dagger handle |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Animal or criminal den |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Cowboy rope |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 1 | LI | 4 | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 1 | RA | 4 | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Rodent hind appendage, fish, or hair style; or round file, compound |
| 1 | RI | 4 | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 1 | RI | 5 | Correct, or →, the direction of east if you are facing north (raise your...hand) |
| 1 | RI | 4 | Small stream |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Sometimes swampy coniferous forest of high northern latitudes |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 1 | TA | 9 | Rear illumination on a car, compound noun |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 1 | TH | 5 | Part of leg between hip & knee |
| 1 | TH | 6 | Sudden feeling of excitement & pleasure (the … of plummeting on a roller coaster), noun/verb |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Having no slack (all my pants became too … during the pandemic), adj. |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Forest path, noun; follow or fall behind, verb |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Courtroom proceeding |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Study of angles in math, slang abbr. (sine, tangent, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Vibratory sound, Star Trek symbiotic species (Dax, e.g.), or how Spanish say “R” |
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