- Letters: P/GILNOT
- Words: 72
- Points: 418
- Pangrams: 3
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | GL | 4,5,8 | Sticky and amorphous substance, typically something unpleasant (2 spellings) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, or unpleasant messy gel |
| 1 | LI | 7 | Body part with which you kiss |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Fat-sucking procedure, abbr. |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Hard candy on a stick |
| 2 | LO | 6,9 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 2 | LO | 4,7 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 7 | Material cut away from a tree, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 1 | OP | 7 | Express a belief or judgement |
| 1 | OP | 7 | Belief or judgment (In my humble …) |
| 1 | OP | 6 | Make a choice from a range of possibilities (he …ed for the red one) |
| 2 | OP | 6,9 | Choice |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Animal that is the source of bacon, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Heap, stack (dirty laundry, raked leaves, etc.), noun/verb |
| 2 | PI | 4,7 | Tablet of medicine |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Passenger seat behind rider on motorcycle or horse |
| 2 | PI | 5,8 | Airplane driver |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 2 | PI | 4,7 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 2 | PI | 6,9 | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Wine grape variety |
| 2 | PI | 8,11 | Locate exactly, or sharp end of sewing fastener, compound |
| 1 | PI | 4 | 16 fluid oz., or typical UK beer serving |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Type of bean, horse, or Ford car |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Large hole in the ground, noun; set someone in competition against, verb |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Rock-climbing spike |
| 2 | PL | 4,8 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 2 | PL | 4,8 | Scheme, noun or verb (Roth’s “The … Against America”); or storyline in fiction |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Bouncy “stick”, noun/verb |
| 2 | PO | 5,8 | Indicate with finger, or end of sharp object |
| 1 | PO | 6 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Disease that put FDR in a wheelchair |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Early Atari table tennis game |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Temp floating bridge; or cylinder full of air, two of which keep a type of slow boat afloat |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Swimming venue |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Tire out (I’m …ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Make a light explosive sound (… the cork, … the question) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Plain-woven fabric, typically a lightweight cotton, with a corded surface |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Large container for cooking (…s and pans); or container for growing plants, noun/verb; or marijuana, slang |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Witch or mad scientist concoction; “love,” e.g. |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Native Am conical hut; Spelling Bee accepts 3 spellings |
| 1 | TI | 7 | The end of a pointed thing, noun; money given for good service, noun/verb |
| 1 | TI | 8 | Drink alcohol, verb; or the drink, slang noun |
| 1 | TI | 6 | Rhyming compound adj. that means “of the very best quality” (in … condition), compound |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Opposite of bottom |
| 1 | TO | 6 | Small grayish slender-bodied shark, or mango tree grove, noun; or archaic term for drink alcohol to excess, verb; homophone of grayish-brown color |
| 1 | TO | 8 | Become unsteady & fall, or knock over (think regime change); 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