- Letters: C/ADEIMT
- Words: 75
- Points: 449
- Pangrams: 5
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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 | AC | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 3 | AC | 7,8,8 | Place of study or training |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Get a top grade on a test |
| 2 | AC | 6,7 | Vinegar adj., or acid it contains |
| 2 | AC | 4,6 | Below 7 on the pH scale (amino …, sulfuric …, hydrochloric …) |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Peak; or where Wile E. Coyote orders his supplies |
| 1 | AC | 5 | Do something |
| 2 | AC | 6,7 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 2 | AD | 6,8 | Someone who’s hooked on drugs |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 2 | CA | 6,7 | One who carries golf clubs |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Trainee in the armed services or police force |
| 1 | CA | 4 | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Travel toward a particular place, tell your dog to move toward you, or slang for “to orgasm” |
| 2 | CE | 4,5 | Give up (power or territory) |
| 1 | CI | 6 | Noisy 17–year insect |
| 2 | CI | 4,5 | Quote as evidence |
| 1 | DE | 6 | Span of ten years |
| 1 | DE | 6 | The act of making someone believe something that is not true; the act of giving a false impression |
| 2 | DE | 6,7 | Make up one’s mind |
| 2 | DE | 8,9 | Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of a group, pangram |
| 3 | DE | 8,9,9 | Devote time and effort to a particular purpose; or mark an artistic work as being in someone's honor |
| 1 | DE | 7 | Killing of a god, noun |
| 2 | DE | 6,8 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 2 | DE | 5,6 | Frozen water |
| 2 | DI | 4,5 | Spotted cubes you roll, noun; or chop into cubes, verb |
| 1 | DI | 5 | (Usually singular) formal pronouncements, or adages, Latin plural |
| 2 | DI | 7,8 | Lay down authoritatively; prescribe; say words that someone will type |
| 2 | DI | 6,8 | Person over-inclined to instruct others |
| 1 | DI | 8 | Limit your food intake, verb/noun |
| 1 | ED | 5 | Official order or proclamation |
| 1 | EI | 7 | Technical term for photographic memory |
| 2 | EM | 8,9 | Cause to lose flesh so as to become very thin, past tense is a pangram |
| 2 | EM | 5,6 | Master of Ceremonies (sounded-out initials), slang noun/verb |
| 1 | EM | 6 | Med that induces vomiting |
| 1 | IC | 4 | Frozen water |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Stone paving material; last name of Brit surveyor John Louden |
| 1 | MA | 9 | Nut used in candy from Hawaii |
| 2 | MA | 4,5 | Self-defense pepper spray, staff, or spice from a nutmeg |
| 1 | ME | 5 | Holiest city in Islam, or place of attraction (shopping …) |
| 1 | ME | 5 | Soldier who treats wounded |
| 2 | ME | 8,9 | Administer a drug; or treat a condition with a drug, pangram verb |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 1 | MI | 4 | 3 blind rodents in rhyme |
| 1 | MI | 7 | Imitative behavior, adj. |
| 1 | MI | 5 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Musical direction meaning “silent” |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Small songbirds; plural; starts with “breast” slang & ends in “3 blind” rodent |
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