- Letters: C/EFINOT
- Words: 61
- Points: 404
- Pangrams: 4
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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 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 1 | CO | 11 | Numerical or constant quantity placed before and multiplying the variable in an algebraic expression, pangram |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Hot drink from roasted & ground beans; you might get some at Starbucks |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Burial box, noun; or put a dead person in a burial box, verb (past tense is a pangram) |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Style someone’s hair, verb/noun |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Excessive pride in oneself |
| 2 | CO | 7,10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 2 | CO | 4,5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Make something by putting together various elements |
| 1 | CO | 10 | Dish or delicacy made with sweet ingredients, pangram |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Small pieces of colored paper thrown during a celebration, pangram |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Restrict in space, scope, quantity, or time (jailed, e.g.), past tense is a pangram |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Duck or other meat cooked & preserved in its own fat, French |
| 2 | CO | 7,10 | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb/noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 1 | CO | 7 | (of a word or fact) imply, verb |
| 2 | CO | 7,10 | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “Table of …s”) |
| 1 | CO | 10 | Ability to control bowel movements or bladder functions |
| 1 | CO | 9 | One of the world's seven main bodies of land |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Kid’s imaginary germ, or a body louse |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 1 | EC | 7 | Region of transition between 2 biological communities, starts with “green” prefix |
| 1 | EF | 6 | Result of an action (cause & …), noun/verb, negated adjective form is a pangram |
| 1 | EF | 9 | Achieving max productivity, or not wasteful (energy …), adj. |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 1 | FE | 5 | Wall (white picket, chain-link), engage in swordplay, or deal in stolen goods; noun/verb |
| 1 | FI | 7 | Book with made-up stories |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Center of interest or activity, noun; adjust a camera to get a clear image, verb |
| 2 | IC | 4,6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | IN | 12 | Ability to control bowel movements or bladder functions |
| 1 | IN | 11 | One of the world's seven main bodies of land |
| 1 | IN | 11 | Achieving max productivity, or not wasteful (energy …), adj. |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 2 | IN | 6,9 | Pass on a disease to someone, varb, adjective and noun forms are pangrams |
| 2 | IN | 8,9 | Guiltless |
| 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | NE | 6 | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Pleasant in manner; or city in SE France |
| 1 | NI | 8 | Addictive substance in tobacco |
| 1 | NI | 5 | Your sibling’s daughter |
| 1 | NO | 10 | Book with made-up stories |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Become aware of, verb; or written announcement (board) |
| 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 1 | OF | 6 | White-collar workplace with desks |
| 1 | ON | 4 | A single time (they deliver … a week) |
| 1 | TE | 8 | Earth plates that shift & cause quakes, adj. |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
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