- Letters: G/DEFLNU
- Words: 48
- Points: 232
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | 2 | Flood (lit. or fig.); “après moi, le …” |
| 2 | 1 | Debilitating viral disease of the tropics, transmitted by mosquitoes, and causing sudden fever and acute pains in the joints, also known as breakbone fever. |
| 3 | 1 | Animal manure |
| 4 | 2 | A border or outer boundary, or to provide one; win by a narrow margin |
| 5 | 1 | What baby birds hatch from, noun; or throw those things at a house or car, verb; or encourage someone to do something, usually something dumb, verb |
| 6 | 2 | Overwhelm (think body of water—the … of Mexico) (the building was … in flames), past tense is a pangram |
| 7 | 3 | (Of a young bird) having wing feathers that are large enough to fly with, negated past tense is a pangram |
| 8 | 1 | Throw forcefully (monkeys often … poop at spectators) |
| 9 | 2 | Candy made from butter, cream, & sugar, noun; or distort (…the numbers); present + past (2 words) |
| 10 | 1 | Japanese toxic pufferfish that’s carefully prepared before eating |
| 11 | 1 | Music with multiple voices & a recurring melody that varies (Bach’s “Toccata &…in D Minor”) |
| 12 | 1 | Thick, clear, slightly sticky substance, especially one used in cosmetic or medicinal products, noun; or become more solid, verb; or take a definite form, verb |
| 13 | 2 | Castrate (a horse) |
| 14 | 1 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 15 | 1 | DNA sequence that determines traits, or singing cowboy Autry |
| 16 | 2 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 17 | 1 | Narrow valley, or Eagles singer Frey |
| 18 | 4 | Adhesive substance; noun/verb |
| 19 | 2 | Drink or pour liquid & make a hollow sound, verb |
| 20 | 1 | Foolish talk (think start of a loud, boisterous laugh) (She doesn’t take … from anyone) |
| 21 | 1 | Deep sea inlet with narrow mouth (… of Mexico, Persian …) |
| 22 | 2 | Noisy shore bird |
| 23 | 1 | Lethal weapon that shoots bullets; slang term for someone who uses it (hired …), noun/verb |
| 24 | 1 | Narrow, projecting cliff “shelf,” or window sill |
| 25 | 1 | Body part that connects the rest of you to your feet |
| 26 | 1 | Mythical story “(Sleepy Hollow,” e.g.), or singer John married to Chrissy Teigen |
| 27 | 1 | Carry or drag with great effort; slang term for someone who is strong but not smart |
| 28 | 2 | High-speed sled you ride on your back |
| 29 | 2 | Breathing organ |
| 30 | 2 | Thrust the body forward suddenly |
| 31 | 2 | Prod gently, verb/noun |
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