- Letters: U/ACEFLT
- Words: 42
- Points: 196
- 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 | Existing in fact comparative adj. (The estimate was higher than the … cost) |
| 1 | AC | 7 | Cause a machine to start up, or motivate a person |
| 1 | AC | 5 | Angle < 90º, or severe |
| 1 | CA | 9 | Add and/or subtract and/or multiply and/or divide as needed to figure out an amount or value; a gadget that helps you do this is a pangram |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Fetus head covering membrane, or ♀ hat |
| 1 | CE | 7 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Hint, or what a detective seeks (Get a …!), noun/verb |
| 1 | CU | 4 | End of shirt sleeve or pant leg; or restraining device attached at the wrists, noun/verb |
| 1 | CU | 4 | Remove unwanted from the herd |
| 1 | CU | 4 | Religious sect centered around a single person |
| 1 | CU | 4 | Adorable (… as a button) or clever (don’t get … with me) |
| 1 | CU | 6 | Portion of breaded & fried or grilled meat, as in “veal” |
| 1 | CU | 6 | Marine mollusk “fish” with internal “bone” |
| 2 | EF | 9,10 | Result of an action (cause & …), noun/verb, one adjective form is a pangram, and so is the other adjective form when negated |
| 1 | FA | 7 | Thing that is known (for a …) |
| 1 | FA | 7 | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 1 | FA | 6 | What you turn on to get water indoors |
| 1 | FA | 5 | Earth fracture where quakes happen (San Andreas …), or weakness; noun/verb; past tense is a pangram |
| 1 | FL | 6 | Rolled tortilla resembling a shrill wind instrument, or the instrument in Spanish |
| 1 | FL | 9 | Rise and fall irregularly, pangram |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 1 | FL | 5 | Dryer lint, noun, or what you do to a flat pillow (… up) |
| 1 | FL | 5 | High-pitched wind instrument (Mozart's opera The Magic …); or tall thin glass for champagne |
| 1 | FU | 4 | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 1 | FU | 4 | At capacity (I can’t finish the meal, I’m …), adj. |
| 1 | LE | 7 | Salad greens (Bibb, Romaine, etc.) |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Hawaiian BBQ |
| 1 | LU | 4 | The forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail, noun; or turn the head of a ship toward the wind, verb |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Older guitar relative |
| 1 | LU | 6 | Phase between ovulation & start of menstruation; anatomy adj.; begins with old guitar relative |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Perceptible by touch, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Not slack, as a rope, adj. |
| 1 | TU | 6 | Footstool or low seat (where Little Miss Muffet sat) |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Clump of hair that sticks up |
| 1 | TU | 5 | Lightweight, stiff veil or gown fabric |
| 1 | TU | 5 | Private instructor |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
| 1 | UL | 7 | Make a high-pitched wail as an expression of grief, imitative 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