- Letters: T/ACIKLO
- Words: 58
- Points: 220
- 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 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 1 | AT | 6 | Assault, noun (an enemy …) or verb (… the problem head-on) |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Feline ♂ whistle; or jeer at passing ♀, compound |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Domestic feline hind appendage; or a tall, reedlike marsh plant with a dark brown, velvety cylindrical head of numerous tiny flowers, compound |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Lump of blood that stops bleeding or circulation |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Outdoor jacket (trench-…) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Central American raccoon |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Flap on lower back of jacket; popular politicians have long ones, inverse of formal jacket list word, compound |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Crested parrot species |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Mixed alcoholic drink (rooster + what dogs wag), compound pangram |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Relating to sexual intercourse, formal adj. |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Young ♂ horse |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 1 | IT | 6 | 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑒’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦, to make it so is a pangram |
| 1 | KI | 4 | ♂ plaid skirt in Scotland |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Milk adj. (think acid in yogurt or sore muscles) |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 1 | OC | 5 | Base–8 number system |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Small nail (thumb …, carpet …), noun; use one, or sail into the wind, verb |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mexican filled tortilla, or “… Bell” restaurant |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 2 | TA | 6,8 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Formal ♂ dinner jacket worn with a white bowtie, compound |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mineral in baby powder |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Speak (… to the hand!) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Bloodsucking arachnid that transmits Lyme disease, or mechanical clock sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TI | 8 | Compound word that is both parts of a mechanical clock sound |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Polynesian or Maori god, or Polynesian style (… bar or torch, Kon-… raft) |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Indian dish of small pieces of meat or vegetables marinated in a spice mixture |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Reach for and hold; remove (… away) |
| 1 | TO | 7 | Virtuoso musical piece (Bach’s “… & Fugue in D Minor”) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | 2nd half of a timepiece sound |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 1 | TO | 7 | A set of implements, compound |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
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