- Letters: B/ALNOTU
- Words: 51
- Points: 187
- 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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
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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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AB | Head monk, perhaps at Downton |
| 2 | 1 | AB | Regarding, preposition |
| 3 | 1 | AB | Be next to; share a common border |
| 4 | 1 | BA | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 5 | 1 | BA | Large monkey with red butt |
| 6 | 1 | BA | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb/noun |
| 7 | 1 | BA | Helium or air filled toy that can pop |
| 8 | 1 | BA | What you mark to vote |
| 10 | 1 | BA | Unoriginal, dull, noun form is a pangram |
| 11 | 1 | BA | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 12 | 1 | BA | African tree |
| 13 | 1 | BA | Thin stick used by a conductor or passed in a relay race |
| 14 | 1 | BL | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 15 | 1 | BL | Make a sound like a sheep, goat, or calf; slang |
| 16 | 1 | BL | Bad behavior, open and unashamed |
| 17 | 1 | BL | Make or become swollen with fluid or gas, esp. stomach |
| 18 | 1 | BL | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 19 | 1 | BL | Stain (on your record), noun; or dry using absorbent material (forehead dampness), verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 20 | 1 | BL | Slang for drunk |
| 21 | 1 | BL | (Of a knife) not sharp, or (of talk) frank; adj. or hollowed-out cigar filled with pot, noun |
| 22 | 1 | BO | Small ship, as in “tug-” |
| 23 | 1 | BO | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 24 | 1 | BO | Thrown weighted string weapon |
| 25 | 1 | BO | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 26 | 1 | BO | Western string tie |
| 27 | 1 | BO | Runner Usain, or what you screw into a nut, noun; or run suddenly and quickly, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 28 | 1 | BO | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 29 | 1 | BO | Small ape related to chimps |
| 30 | 1 | BO | Breast, slang |
| 31 | 1 | BO | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 32 | 1 | BO | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 33 | 1 | BO | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 34 | 1 | BO | Short period (… of insomnia or depression, e.g.), or wrestling or boxing match |
| 35 | 1 | BU | Southern good ole boy |
| 36 | 1 | BU | Light-producing globe, head of garlic, or what you plant to get a tulip |
| 37 | 1 | BU | ♂ cow |
| 38 | 1 | BU | Tap a baseball instead of swinging |
| 39 | 1 | BU | Alcohol based on a four-carbon chain, pangram |
| 40 | 1 | BU | Hit with head or horns (… heads with), verb; or slang abbr. for your rump, noun |
| 41 | 1 | BU | Shirt fastener, or to fasten shirt, verb + pangram gerund, negated gerund form is also a pangram |
| 42 | 1 | LO | Wolf, Spanish |
| 43 | 1 | NA | Conspicuously rich person, as in VP Agnew’s “nattering …s of negativism” |
| 44 | 1 | NA | Hypothetical, very small, self-propelled machine |
| 45 | 1 | NO | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 46 | 1 | TA | Indian small drum pair; NOT dining room furniture |
| 47 | 1 | TA | Forbidden, cultural no-nos |
| 48 | 1 | TU | Biggest brass instrument; Sousaphone is a modified one that can be used in parades |
| 49 | 1 | TU | Adj. relating to flexible pipes, esp. Fallopian ones (… ligation) |
| 9 | 1 | UN | Prohibit, verb |
| 27 | 1 | UN | Runner Usain, or what you screw into a nut, noun; or run suddenly and quickly, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 41 | 1 | UN | Shirt fastener, or to fasten shirt, verb + pangram gerund, negated gerund form is also a pangram |
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 social media.
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