- Letters: E/ABCKLO
- Words: 44
- Points: 192
- 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 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AL | 9 | Distribute (resources) for a particular purpose |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sunburn gel from “… vera” plant |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Infant, slugger Ruth, or pig film |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Genesis “Tower of …,” noun |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Cook (bread or cookies, e.g.) in an oven, verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Parcel of hay, or actor Christian |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Bird bill |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Gesture requesting attention; summons (at someone's … and call) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Dreary, grim, or depressing; adj. (Dickens' “… House”) |
| 1 | BL | 9 | large solid piece of hard material, especially rock, stone, or wood, typically with flat surfaces on each side, noun; or prevent from moving in a particular direction, verb |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Brit & Aussie slang for guy |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Italian game similar to lawn bowling |
| 1 | BO | 8 | Printed novel, noun; or reserve something, verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Thick wire rope (… bridge), San Francisco trolley (… car), or insulated wire (power or USB …) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Make a harsh, raucous sound when laughing, verb/noun; (the witch …d with delight as she stirred the potion) |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Baked dessert, often with layers and icing; traditional birthday party fare |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 1 | CE | 5 | Person who’s well-known, slang abbr. |
| 1 | CE | 4 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 1 | CE | 9 | Large building subdivided into separate prison cells, compound |
| 1 | CE | 5 | Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument (also Pablo Casals') |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Repair or make, especially shoes; make or put together roughly or hastily |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Edible bivalve marine mollusk with a pretty shell, or slang for your core (it warms the …s of my heart) |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Pepsi rival; or fuel made by heating coal in the absence of air; or slang abbr. for drug people snort |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Prep or heat food |
| 1 | KA | 4 | Trendy lettuce (but really leaf cabbage) |
| 1 | KE | 5 | Meat on a skewer (shish …) |
| 1 | KE | 4 | Bottom stabilizing ridge of a boat or ship, noun; or capsize, verb (… over) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Tag or sticky paper with info (Avery mailing …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Large body of freshwater (Great ones are Erie, Superior, etc.) |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Place where water escapes a pipe or hose, or info spilled to a reporter |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Veg similar to onion; homophone of place where water escapes a pipe |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Place where something happens (exotic …) |
| 1 | LO | 8 | A door fastener with a key, noun/verb |
| 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
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