- Letters: N/ACEHLO
- Words: 62
- Points: 269
- 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 | AC | 4 | Teen facial zits |
| 1 | AE | 4 | Geologic time period, spelled with an æsc; “… Flux” anime |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Dried poblano pepper |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Heat then cool metal or glass slowly to toughen it |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Artificial waterway (Erie, Suez, Panama …) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Nix, scrub (a concert, game, date, or show; e.g.) |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Walking stick, or striped peppermint Xmas crook |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Narrow boat with pointed ends, propelled by paddling, noun/verb |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Rapeseed oil |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | CH | 6 | Possibility (there’s a small …) or serendipity (they met by …), noun; or take a risk, verb |
| 1 | CH | 7 | Space around a church altar |
| 1 | CH | 7 | TV station number on a knob (CBS is 2 in NYC & LA) or strait (swim across the English …), noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Group of related (Scottish) families |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Make tidy, verb (… your room, young man!); or dirt-free, adj. |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Close fingers into a tight ball (fist), or contract muscles (buttocks, jaw), gerund form and negated past tense are pangrams |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Identical (genetic) copy, or make one, noun/verb |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 1 | CO | 9 | Irish mashed potatoes & cabbage (think large weapon that shoots balls) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Irish term for a young ♀ |
| 1 | CO | 5 | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Military rank between major & general (Hogan & Klink, e.g.) |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Keep from sight, or keep something secret; verb (use …er to hide facial blemishes) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Sea snail with spiral shell |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 1 | EC | 7 | A rank in an organization, profession, or society |
| 1 | EL | 4 | Énérgy, stylé, énthusiasm; from Frénch |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Intensify, increase, or improve (do this to your driver’s license so it meets new TSA rules), noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Consequently, or in the future (…forth) |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Hair or temp. tattoo dye |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Boss (head …); Japanese |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Sharpen (a blade or skill) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Cavalry pole weapon, noun/verb |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small road (Beatles’ Penny … or Superman’s Lois …) |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Not fatty (… meat), adj.; or incline (… back in your chair) |
| 1 | LL | 5 | South American grassy plain |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Borrowed $, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 1 | LO | 4 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Streamlined enclosure on an aircraft |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Tortilla chip topped with melted cheese and often other tasty toppings |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 1 | NE | 6 | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 1 | NO | 8 | From a nearby area, or a train making all stops |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 1 | NO | 11 | Feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm, adj., noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | OC | 5 | Enormous body of salt water |
| 1 | ON | 4 | A single time (they deliver … a week) |
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