- Letters: L/BEFINU
- Words: 53
- Points: 210
- 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 | BE | 7 | Straight, direct course between 2 points, compound (think this puzzle’s name) |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Happen to someone (said about something bad) |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Acceptance that something is true, esp. in religion, noun (negative form is a pangram) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Be in a horizontal resting position, or say something false |
| 1 | BI | 5 | Holy book (starts with Genesis) |
| 1 | BI | 4 | Liver secretion, or anger |
| 1 | BI | 4 | Invoice, or actor Murray, noun/verb |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Russian pancake |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Primary color, neither red nor green |
| 1 | BL | 8 | Flower shaped like something that rings, in the primary color that isn't red or gree, compound |
| 1 | BL | 7 | Commercially important tuna variety, compound pangram made from sky color + fish's dorsal appendage |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Bet as if you had better cards than you do, verb/noun; or a steep bank |
| 1 | BU | 6 | Thin sphere of liquid enclosing air or another gas (the kids loved blowing soap …s) |
| 1 | BU | 4 | Light-producing globe, head of garlic, or what you plant to get a tulip |
| 1 | BU | 4 | ♂ cow |
| 1 | EL | 5 | Small, delicate, impish; as a Keebler worker, adj. |
| 1 | EN | 8 | Weak (…-minded), adj. |
| 1 | FE | 6 | Weak (…-minded), adj. |
| 1 | FE | 4 | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 1 | FE | 6 | Cat adj./noun |
| 1 | FE | 4 | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 1 | FE | 6 | Veg & seed used in cooking, esp. Italian |
| 1 | FI | 4 | Folder of related papers, or tool for smoothing edges (fingernails, e.g.), noun/verb |
| 1 | FI | 4 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Blunder/botch/bungle, informal verb/noun |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 1 | FL | 5 | Dryer lint, noun, or what you do to a flat pillow (… up) |
| 1 | FU | 4 | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 1 | FU | 7 | Bring to reality (… your dreams), or carry out a duty (… your obligations) |
| 1 | FU | 4 | At capacity (I can’t finish the meal, I’m …), adj. |
| 1 | FU | 6 | Pouring tool that’s wide at top & narrow at bottom, noun; or guide something through something else |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 2 | LI | 5,7 | Printed slander, noun |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Bank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt |
| 1 | LI | 4 | In place of (in … of flowers) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Cereal Mikey prefers, board game, or “death” antonym |
| 1 | LI | 8 | What a palm reader checks to see when you’ll die, or “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” friend assistance, compound |
| 1 | LI | 4 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Cloth napkin fabric |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Use oil to reduce friction and make something work better |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Moon, French (Debussy’s “Clair de …”) |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 1 | NU | 6 | Small knob or lump |
| 1 | NU | 6 | (About a young woman) old enough to marry |
| 1 | NU | 4 | Having no legal or binding force; invalid |
| 1 | UN | 8 | Acceptance that something is true, esp. in religion, noun (negative form is a pangram) |
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