- Letters: I/DEJNOT
- Words: 59
- Points: 300
- 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 |
| root # | answers covered | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Tooth layer under enamel |
| 2 | 1 | The arrangement or condition of the teeth in a particular species or individual, noun |
| 3 | 1 | Refuse to give, grant or admit |
| 4 | 1 | Having to stay after school (Bart Simpson always earns … & has to write on the chalkboard), noun |
| 5 | 1 | Cease to live |
| 6 | 2 | Limit your food intake, verb/noun |
| 7 | 2 | Eat at a restaurant |
| 8 | 1 | Set of tables & chairs for eating meals |
| 9 | 1 | Flintstones pet, or T. Rex family abbr. |
| 10 | 1 | Archaic word whose only surviving use is “by [means] of” (hard work) |
| 11 | 1 | 1–way semiconductor with 2 terminals |
| 12 | 1 | “Same here” or “same as above” |
| 13 | 1 | Water swirl, NOT clothier Bauer |
| 14 | 2 | Revise text |
| 15 | 1 | Version of a published text (1st, paperback, e.g), noun |
| 16 | 2 | Legal term meaning to prohibit someone from doing something |
| 17 | 1 | Stupid person (village …) |
| 18 | 1 | Truly; used to emphasize & confirm previous statement (sometimes follows “yes”), compound |
| 19 | 2 | Place text further from margin than the rest, present + past |
| 20 | 1 | Unaffiliated with a major studio, slang abbr. (film or music, e.g.) |
| 21 | 1 | Concave belly button, slang |
| 22 | 2 | Mean to do something (what do you …?) |
| 23 | 3 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 24 | 1 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 25 | 1 | Compound made with element 53 |
| 26 | 1 | Element 53, stored in thyroid, added to table salt, used to treat cuts |
| 27 | 4 | Arabian air or flame spirit, portrayed as living in lamps & granting 3 wishes |
| 28 | 2 | Link, connect (… in holy matrimony) |
| 29 | 2 | Place where 2 bones connect & allow motion (knee, knuckle, e.g.), noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 30 | 1 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 31 | 1 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 32 | 1 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 33 | 1 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 34 | 1 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 35 | 2 | Ocean ebb & flow at the beach, or laundry soap brand |
| 36 | 1 | Neatly arranged, adj.; or neaten up, verb |
| 37 | 1 | Fasten with string or cord, verb/noun |
| 38 | 1 | Silvery-white metal, atomic number 50 (Cat on a Hot … Roof), noun; or the process of coating another metal with this, verb |
| 39 | 2 | Fork prong |
| 40 | 2 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 41 | 2 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 42 | 1 | Canada $2 coin nickname derived from their $1 avian coin name |
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