- Letters: O/ABDILR
- Words: 59
- Points: 218
- 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 | AB | 6 | Train conductor cry: “All …!” (“Get on now!”) |
| 1 | AB | 6 | Overseas (travel …) |
| 1 | AB | 5 | Heat water to 212°F or 100°C |
| 1 | AD | 5 | Filipino stew or Mexican seasoning |
| 1 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Tree garden; its “Day” is the last Friday in April in many places |
| 1 | AR | 7 | Variety of round-grained Italian rice used in making risotto |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 1 | BA | 6 | African tree |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Spanish term for “neighborhood” |
| 1 | BI | 9 | Large outdoor advertising poster, or music industry magazine; compound pangram |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 1 | BL | 5 | What hearts pump, noun/adj. |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Wild pig |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Plank of wood, noun; or get on a vehicle, verb |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Heat water to 212°F or 100°C |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Thrown weighted string weapon |
| 1 | BO | 4 | 𝐔𝐧𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐚𝐝𝐣. |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 1 | BO | 7 | Short, thick post for mooring or protection |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Western string tie |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Lout, NOT wild pig |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Vigor, Italian; often used in music as “allegro con …” |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Wide, or slang term for ♀, adj. + adv. |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Cook by direct exposure to heat (under the burner, e.g.) |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Fret about, or a hen sitting on eggs, verb + adj. |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or stupid person, slang |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 1 | DO | 6 | US currency |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Literary term for a a state of great sorrow or distress (Spanish for pain), noun |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Room or bldg. entrance |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Mahimahi; or South American freshwater fish with a golden body and red fins |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Star Wars robot (R2D2, C3PO, BB–8), or last syllable of Google phone OS (An…) |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Curious or unusual in a way that provokes amusement, adj. |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Spit leaking out of your mouth, noun/verb |
| 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Hard work (manual…), or UK political party of Tony Blair (they add a U) |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Sex drive |
| 1 | LO | 4 | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 4 | ♂ version of “Lady” in nobility, or term for God; or, exclamation expressing surprise or worry |
| 1 | OD | 7 | Weirdo (or pool table orb with a non-even number); compound |
| 1 | OD | 4 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | OR | 4 | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 1 | RA | 5 | AM/FM music & talk device in car & home |
| 1 | RA | 8 | Trains & tracks, compound noun; ends in below (“I’ve been working on the …”) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Lion “shout” |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Stir up mud or trouble (…ed the waters) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | What you do to dice, verb; or Tootsie candy & small bread format, noun |
| 1 | RO | 7 | Vehicle roof rod to protect against overturning, compound |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Large crucifix above altar, anagram of bldg. entrance |
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