- Letters: O/AEFLPW
- Words: 42
- Points: 129
- 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 | AL | 5 | Permit, verb |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sunburn gel from “… vera” plant |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Cool & distant in behavior, adj.; anagram of bath sponge |
| 1 | EL | 5 | Run away to marry |
| 1 | FA | 7 | Statistical decrease, or result of slipping while on a ladder; compound |
| 1 | FA | 6 | Crop field left dormant, adj. |
| 1 | FE | 6 | Man or boy, noun/adj. |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Sheet of ice atop the ocean, homophone of moving liquid |
| 1 | FL | 4 | A failure (the film was a total …), or ungainly pool dive (belly …), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Movement of water in a current |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Baby horse or other equine, noun/verb |
| 1 | FO | 6 | Come after or behind (an event or person) |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Unwise person, court jester tarot card, noun; or to trick or deceive, verb |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Domestic game birds, not an unfair act in soccer |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Unit of bread, noun; or idle (… around), verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 1 | LO | 5 | Bath sponge |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | OF | 5 | Entrails & organs used as food |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Gemstone from Australia, October birthstone |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans |
| 1 | PE | 7 | Any of three very large terrestrial pheasants, often raised as ornamental because of their colorful, iridescent plumage (includes longtime NBC mascot) |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Humanity, or celeb mag with annual “sexiest man” |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Farm implement for cutting furrows; or truck attachment for removing snow, noun/verb |
| 1 | PO | 4 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Exclamation of suddenness (…—it’s gone!), or Brit slang for a gay ♂ |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Swimming venue |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Leo, Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 1 | PO | 6 | North American Indian ceremony involving feasting, singing and dancing |
| 1 | WA | 6 | Strike or hit very hard |
| 1 | WA | 6 | Roll around in mud, or indulge "in" emotion (misery, self-pity) |
| 1 | WO | 4 | Wild cousin of dogs that travels in packs, noun; or devour hungrily, verb |
| 1 | WO | 4 | What a dog says |
| 1 | WO | 4 | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj. |
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