- Letters: T/ADEGNV
- Words: 61
- Points: 337
- Pangrams: 2
|
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
| |
|
Table content
|
| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | AD | 9,10 | A favorable or superior position, noun/verb |
| 1 | AD | 6 | Arrival of a notable person, thing, or event, especially the time leading up to Christmas |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Banded quartz, perhaps a toy marble |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Person who acts on behalf of another person or group (secret …) |
| 1 | AN | 7 | Performed at a moderately slow tempo (music) |
| 2 | AN | 4,5 | $ to join a poker game, or “before” prefix |
| 2 | AN | 8,9 | Precede in time |
| 2 | AN | 7,8 | It picks up TV or radio signals |
| 4 | AT | 6,8,8,9 | Be present at an event or function; take care of (…ing physician) |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Facts & stats, computer info, or Star Trek Next Gen android |
| 2 | DA | 4,5 | June 12, 2021, e.g., noun; or see someone romantically, verb |
| 2 | DE | 4,6 | Make an impression on a car bumper after a collision, verb/noun |
| 1 | DE | 7 | Easing of hostility between countries (French) |
| 1 | EA | 5 | Consume food |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 1 | EV | 5 | Thing that happens (“When in the course of human …s”) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Small mechanical or electronic device, especially an ingenious or novel one; gizmo |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Large white plunge-diving seabird |
| 2 | GA | 4,5 | Hinged barrier, or airplane boarding area |
| 1 | GE | 4 | ♂ counterpart to “lady,” slang abbr. |
| 1 | GN | 4 | Tiny flying insect |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 3 | NE | 4,6,8 | Tidy |
| 2 | NE | 6,7 | Nullify; make ineffective |
| 1 | NE | 6 | Open-meshed fabric twisted, knotted, or woven together at regular intervals, noun/verb |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Identification label, noun/verb; or kids' game (…, you're it) |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Yellowish-brown color |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Completely different line of thought or action (sometimes I go off on a …); (math) a line or plane that approximates a curve or surface at a point; or (math) trig function (sine/cosine) |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Make lace |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Nipple |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Short stick that holds up a golf ball, noun/verb |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 2 | TE | 7,8 | Between twelve and twenty |
| 1 | TE | 6 | Person a landlord rents to |
| 2 | TE | 4,6 | Frequently behave in a certain way, or look after (serve drinks at a bar, e.g.) |
| 1 | TE | 5 | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 2 | TE | 4,6 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 1 | VA | 7 | place providing a good view of something, often followed by "point" |
| 2 | VE | 8,9 | Live in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way |
| 1 | VE | 8 | Blood feud in which the family of a murdered person retaliates against the murderer or the murderer's family |
| 2 | VE | 4,6 | Exhaust outlet (clothes dryer, e.g.), noun; or let out your frustrations, verb |
| 1 | VE | 6 | Person with combat experience, noun; check credentials, verb |
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