- Letters: D/AGILNO
- Words: 64
- Points: 334
- 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 | AD | 6 | Performed in slow tempo (music) |
| 1 | AD | 6 | Join something to something else |
| 1 | AD | 7 | Confuse, muddle |
| 1 | AI | 6 | Help |
| 1 | DA | 8 | Move a baby up and down in a playful or affectionate way |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Mild cuss (just get the … thing working!); euphemism for “condemn to Hell” expletive |
| 1 | DA | 8 | Hang or swing loosely |
| 1 | DI | 8 | Line connecting a corner of a rectangle with the opposite corner |
| 2 | DI | 4,7 | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob (don't touch that …!) |
| 1 | DI | 6 | Conversation between two people as part of a play, noun/verb |
| 1 | DI | 8 | Pass time aimlessly or unproductively |
| 1 | DI | 7 | Make a hole in the ground; enjoy (slang) |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 1 | DI | 6 | Eat at a restaurant |
| 2 | DI | 4,7 | Dent (a … on the car door), or 1st ½ of doorbell sound |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Wild Australian canine (“A … ate my baby!”) |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Flintstones pet, or T. Rex family abbr. |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Perform an action, achieve or complete something; hairstyle (American slang); social event (British slang) |
| 1 | DO | 7 | Avoid by a sudden quick movement (… the military draft; play …ball) |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or stupid person, slang |
| 1 | DO | 7 | Domestic canine, noun; follow closely and persistently, verb |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Remaining silent & motionless to hide (lie …) (think domestic canine) |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Pineapple brand, noun; or distribute (… out portions of food) |
| 2 | DO | 4,7 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 1 | DO | 7 | Put on (… we now our gay apparel) |
| 1 | DO | 4 | ₫ (Vietnam $), or 2nd ½ of doorbell sound |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 1 | DO | 8 | Scribble or draw absentmindedly |
| 1 | GA | 7 | go around from one place to another, in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment |
| 1 | GA | 8 | The world of criminal groups, compound |
| 2 | GI | 4,7 | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Pleased, delighted |
| 1 | GL | 8 | Sword-shaped flower |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Organ in the body that secretes chemicals |
| 1 | GL | 7 | What an engineless plane does (hanging optional), or dental floss brand |
| 2 | GO | 4,7 | Provoke, use a spiked stick to drive cattle |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Gland that produces sperm or eggs |
| 1 | GO | 7 | The part of a blimp you can ride in |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Virtuous (“… Humor” ice cream brand); or sizable (a … amount of hot fudge); or approving exclamation (Oh …! We’re having ice cream!) |
| 1 | ID | 6 | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but not in gear |
| 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Tropical pea, blue dye from it, or a dark blue color (“… Girls” folk rock duo) |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Not on the coast |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface, compound |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Load cargo (root is archaic, derivatives are still in use) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Long-handled utensil for serving soup |
| 2 | LA | 4,7 | Alight on the ground, verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 2 | LO | 4,7 | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 1 | LO | 7 | Provide someone with a place to sleep (at a ski resort?) |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Nothing, Spanish |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Greek water nymph, or dragonfly larva |
| 1 | NO | 7 | Move your head up and down a little, usually to signal agreement, verb/noun |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Connecting point |
| 1 | NO | 8 | Egg pasta (limp…), noun; or improvise or play casually on a musical instrument, present + past tense verbs |
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