- Letters: C/AEGNOT
- Words: 57
- Points: 307
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC | 6 | Foreign pronunciation (Ricky speaks with a Cuban …), or stress marks on letters (à é ì ó ù) |
| 1 | AC | 7 | Vinegar adj., or acid it contains |
| 1 | AC | 7 | Nail polish remover |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Teen facial zits |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Bean source of Hershey Bars |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Barred enclosure, or actor Nicolas |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Walking stick, or striped peppermint Xmas crook |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 1 | CA | 6 | “I am unable to do so,” formally |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Narrow boat with pointed ends, propelled by paddling, noun/verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Tilt, or “I am unable to do so” contraction; hypocritical and sanctimonious talk |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Medium-length narrative music for voice & instruments, from Italian for “sung” |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Army or scout water flask |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Swiss “state,” or upper inner corner of a flag (blue field with white stars here) |
| 1 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 1 | CE | 8 | Whale & dolphin noun or adj. from Latin order name |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 1 | CO | 4 | 1st part of popular soda brand name |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Clear, logical, and convincing |
| 1 | CO | 6 | High-quality brandy from western France |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Having the same linguistic derivation as another word |
| 1 | CO | 11 | Paste two character strings together |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Latin American dance of African origin, usually with several people in a single line, one behind the other; tall drum played with hands |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Broth or porridge made from rice |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb/noun, adj. form is a pangram |
| 1 | CO | 7 | (of a word or fact) imply, verb |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Get in touch with, verb; or list of people’s numbers on your phone (if plural), noun |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “Table of …s”) |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Small simple house, typically one near a lake or beach (… cheese, … industry) |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 1 | CO | 9 | 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), the inverse (cosine/sine) is a pangram |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Person a landlord rents to, one of two or more of these is a pangram |
| 1 | EC | 7 | Sabotage designed to publicize or harass people believed to be harming the environment |
| 1 | EC | 7 | Region of transition between 2 biological communities, starts with “green” prefix |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Barred enclosure, or actor Nicolas |
| 1 | EN | 5 | Make a bill into law |
| 1 | NE | 6 | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 1 | OC | 5 | Enormous body of salt water |
| 1 | OC | 7 | 8-sided shape |
| 1 | OC | 6 | 8-carbon chain, measured for rating gasoline |
| 1 | OC | 6 | Arc of a circle that’s 1/8 of circumference, or obsolete navigation device |
| 1 | OC | 5 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 1 | ON | 4 | A single time (they deliver … a week) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Musical direction meaning “silent” |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “… & Fugue in D Minor”) |
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