- Letters: G/AEILTY
- Words: 57
- Points: 297
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | AG | 5 | Banded quartz, perhaps a toy marble |
| 3 | AG | 5,7,7 | Able to move quickly and easily |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Italian slang for heartburn from stress |
| 1 | AG | 7 | Make someone nervous, campaign for a cause, or stir briskly (clothes in a washing machine, e.g.), verb |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Shoelace tip protector |
| 3 | AL | 4,5,5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Claim without proof |
| 2 | EA | 5,6 | A bald one is the USA's national bird |
| 1 | EG | 4 | What baby birds hatch from, noun; or throw those things at a house or car, verb; or encourage someone to do something, usually something dumb, verb |
| 1 | EL | 5 | Poem that’s a lament for the dead |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 1 | GA | 6 | A “herd” of geese |
| 1 | GA | 4 | A person's way of walking, or an animal’s pace (esp. horse); NOT a hinged fence opening |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Strong wind storm |
| 1 | GA | 7 | French flat fruit pie |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Ship or plane kitchen |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Hinged barrier, or airplane boarding area |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Measuring dial (fuel …) |
| 4 | GA | 5,5,6,6 | Homosexual (used especially of a man); lighthearted and carefree (dated) |
| 1 | GE | 6 | Italian ice cream; limone is my fav |
| 1 | GE | 5 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 1 | GE | 4 | Yiddish for $, bet during dreidel game |
| 2 | GI | 6,6 | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 1 | GI | 4 | Fish breathing organ |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 3 | IL | 7,9,10 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Fall behind, verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 8 | Dawdle, slang (ends in “mouth covering” synonym) |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Body part that connects the rest of you to your feet |
| 3 | LE | 5,7,8 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | LE | 6 | General or governor of an ancient Roman province, or their deputy; or a member of the clergy, esp. a cardinal, representing the Pope |
| 1 | LE | 7 | Person who receives a legacy |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Conforming to the law or to rules, adj., also a slang abbreviation (they were married at the time of the birth, so their baby was …) |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Feudal superior (“Yes, my …”) |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Medical term for tie off (-TION form is more common: tubal …ion) |
| 1 | LI | 8 | What a lawyer does with a lawsuit, verb, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | TA | 11 | Pasta in narrow ribbons |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Sometimes swampy coniferous forest of high northern latitudes |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Door at the back of a pickup truck, noun; or follow too closely when driving, slang verb; or party in the parking lot before a sporting event, compound noun/verb |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, 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