- Letters: L/ACEHNV
- Words: 55
- Points: 237
- Pangrams: 1
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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 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Heat then cool metal or glass slowly to toughen it |
| 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 | AV | 9 | Violent & sudden mountain snow slide, pangram |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Give birth, for a cow |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Artificial waterway (Erie, Suez, Panama …) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Nix, scrub (a concert, game, date, or show; e.g.) |
| 1 | CE | 4 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 1 | CH | 7 | Jewish Sabbath braided egg bread |
| 1 | CH | 7 | Space around a church altar |
| 1 | CH | 7 | TV station number on a knob (CBS is 2 in NYC & LA) or strait (swim across the English …), noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Group of related (Scottish) families |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Archaic past tense of split or sever, especially along the grain |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Make tidy, verb (… your room, young man!); or dirt-free, adj. |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Split or sever, especially along the grain |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Close fingers into a tight ball (fist), or contract muscles (buttocks, jaw), gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | EL | 4 | Énérgy, stylé, énthusiasm; from Frénch |
| 1 | EL | 6 | Hour before noon |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Territory within or surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Kosher in Islam |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Strong, well, fit (… & hearty); or Revolutionary War patriot Nathan |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Corridor, or Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty |
| 2 | HA | 5,6 | Middle eastern candy made from sesame paste |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Divide into 2 equal parts (½ as a verb) |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Recover from injury |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Back of your foot (Achilles’ weakness), noun; or (of a dog) follow closely |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Satan’s domain |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Obscure word for tool or weapon handle; start of “Swiss” font name |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Cavalry pole weapon, noun/verb |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small road (Beatles’ Penny … or Superman’s Lois …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Molten rock from a volcano |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Wash |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Dissolve out by percolating liquid, verb; or “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” host Robin |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Not fatty (… meat), adj.; or incline (… back in your chair) |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Depart, verb |
| 1 | LE | 6 | Cause to rise, as bread with yeast |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Womanizer, derogatory slang abbr., or former Polish president Wałęsa |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Bloodsucking worm, noun; habitually exploit or rely on, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | LE | 5 | River embankment to prevent flooding |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Flat, adj.; or straightening tool with bubble, noun |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Streamlined enclosure on an aircraft |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Seafaring military force, adj., not belly button |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Belly button |
| 1 | VA | 7 | Decorative drapery hung above a window to hide the curtain fittings |
| 1 | VA | 4 | Low area of land between mountains (… of Tears) |
| 1 | VA | 7 | The number of hydrogen atoms an element can displace or combine with (for carbon it's 4 and for oxygen it's 2) |
| 1 | VA | 5 | Device that controls passage of fluid or air (shut-off …, heart …) |
| 1 | VE | 4 | Calf meat (… Parmesan) |
| 1 | VE | 5 | Corrupt (susceptible to bribery), adj. |
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