- Letters: A/FILNTY
- Words: 68
- Points: 347
- Pangrams: 3
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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 |
| root # | answers covered | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Legal term for someone who swears to a statement of fact |
| 2 | 1 | Liking or sympathy for someone or something (I have an … for word games) |
| 3 | 1 | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 4 | 1 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 5 | 1 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict, noun/verb |
| 6 | 1 | Yearly record book |
| 7 | 1 | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife's nickname |
| 8 | 1 | Anti-fascist group used as a scapegoat by the right |
| 9 | 2 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 10 | 1 | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 11 | 1 | Don’t pass a test, negated gerund form is a pangram |
| 12 | 2 | Lose consciousness, verb; or barely perceptible, adj.; adv. form is a pangram |
| 13 | 1 | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 14 | 1 | Body part upon which you sit |
| 15 | 1 | With a backend in the shape of a device for moving air, compound (… pigeon, … shrimp) |
| 16 | 2 | Natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies, noun/adj.; or (archaic) cause to have a lot of it, verb |
| 17 | 3 | Deadly, adj. (“… Attraction” film) |
| 18 | 1 | Italian car brand (part of Chrysler/Stellantis), formal decree, or arbitrary order |
| 19 | 2 | Of or due from a son or daughter, adj. |
| 20 | 3 | Last one (… exam, “… Countdown”); noun form meaning the state of being this way is a pangram |
| 21 | 1 | Ornament at end or top of an object |
| 22 | 1 | Swing (arms) wildly |
| 23 | 1 | Caramel-topped custard |
| 24 | 2 | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 25 | 1 | Peel the skin off of a corpse or carcass |
| 26 | 1 | Stupid, silly, ridiculous (… questions or comments); adj. |
| 27 | 2 | Baby, noun; suffixed form meaning the state of acting like a baby is a pangram |
| 28 | 2 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien), verb form is a pangram |
| 29 | 1 | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface, compound |
| 30 | 1 | Non-clerical |
| 31 | 1 | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 32 | 1 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 33 | 1 | Put something down |
| 34 | 1 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 35 | 1 | Tedious series of complaints |
| 36 | 1 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 37 | 1 | Inexperienced person (from French) |
| 38 | 1 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 39 | 1 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 40 | 1 | ♀ goat, or nursemaid |
| 41 | 2 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 42 | 1 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 43 | 2 | Well dressed, adj. |
| 44 | 1 | Chewy candy (Salt water …) |
| 45 | 1 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 46 | 1 | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 47 | 1 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 48 | 1 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 49 | 1 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 50 | 1 | Ankle bone |
| 51 | 1 | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 52 | 1 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 53 | 1 | Thin gauze muslin; or high-end jeweler (Breakfast at …'s) |
| 54 | 1 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 55 | 1 | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
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