Bee Roots for 2024-05-13

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
  • Letters: Y/CILNOR
  • Words: 22
  • Points: 105
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1CL4Sicken with sweetness
1CO6Area controlled by another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country (Massachusetts Bay …), adverb form is a pangram
1CO6“Warm” antonym, or “neat!”
2CO5,7Trite and mawkish, adverb form is a pangram
1CO5Reluctant to give details, especially about something regarded as sensitive
1CR5Close friend or companion (often derogatory)
1CR7Practice of deep-freezing dead bodies, always used as plural except here
1CY6Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order
1CY5Doubter, pessimist
1IC5Frozen water
1IL4Not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car)
1IR5Oxymoronic humor, sarcasm
1LI4Monet floral subject (water …)
1LO5“Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin
1LO5“Truck” in Britspeak
1LY5Adj. for small harp, or singular of term for words to a song
1NI5Foolish or silly person
1NY5Synthetic stocking fabric
1OI4Viscous liquid used for lubrication, noun/verb; (food) a fat that's liquid at room temperature
1ON6Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg")
1ON4Sole, nothing more (“I’m … human!”)

About this site

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