- Letters: U/DELOPT
- Words: 62
- Points: 299
- 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 | Believe true even when you know better |
| 2 | 2 | Obscure verb from French meaning to appoint someone to perform a task for which you are responsible; delegate |
| 3 | 1 | Slang for “guy” (Aerosmith “… Looks Like a Lady”), noun; dress up elaborately, verb |
| 4 | 2 | Pistol fight at dawn |
| 5 | 2 | Performance by 2 people (music, dance, etc.), noun/verb |
| 6 | 2 | Not shiny, adjective/verb |
| 7 | 2 | Trick (… into) |
| 8 | 1 | In music, rhythm based on two main beats to the measure |
| 9 | 2 | Dodge, or fail to be grasped |
| 10 | 1 | French for “study,” or short musical exercise piece |
| 11 | 1 | Pause or reduction in intensity of something unpleasant (storm, traffic), compound noun |
| 12 | 1 | Sound at high volume |
| 13 | 1 | Magnifying glass without a handle, homophone of curve that rejoins itself, noun |
| 14 | 1 | Uncouth & aggressive ♂, noun |
| 15 | 2 | Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun |
| 16 | 1 | Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer |
| 17 | 1 | Older guitar relative |
| 18 | 1 | Opposite of in, adverb/adj./prep.; or disclose, against their will, a person's sexual orientation, verb |
| 19 | 1 | One-up, surpass, compound verb |
| 20 | 2 | Defeat an opponent head-to-head, compound verb made from opposite of in + pistol fight at dawn |
| 21 | 1 | Electric power receptacle where you insert a plug |
| 22 | 2 | Is more popular in a survey (The front-runner continues to…his rivals, according to Gallup), compound verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 23 | 1 | Results of computer processing, compound |
| 24 | 2 | Emit smoke into the air or toxins into the water (give a hoot, don’t…), verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 25 | 1 | Young fowl being raised for food; remove suffix from term for chicken meat |
| 26 | 2 | Push your lower lip out because you're annoyed |
| 27 | 2 | Small pool of rainwater on the ground, noun/verb |
| 28 | 2 | Literary for “whimper” (usually ends in –ING) |
| 29 | 2 | Tug on, verb |
| 30 | 1 | Young hen |
| 31 | 1 | Magazine section designed to be detached, sleeper sofa, or a troop withdrawal; compound noun; starts with list word; also an iffy birth control method (coitus interruptus) |
| 32 | 2 | Soft, wet, shapeless mass (“… Fiction” film), or floating bits of fruit in orange juice, noun/verb |
| 33 | 1 | Marionette, but no strings (Elmo, e.g.) |
| 34 | 1 | The act of retiring a batter or runner (baseball), compound |
| 35 | 2 | Hit a golf ball gently on the green |
| 36 | 1 | Hairpiece worn to cover a bald spot |
| 37 | 2 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 38 | 1 | Lightweight, stiff veil or gown fabric |
| 39 | 1 | City where Elvis was born, or tree used as a honey plant in the Gulf Coast |
| 40 | 1 | Make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance |
| 41 | 1 | Private instructor |
| 42 | 1 | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
| 43 | 1 | Toward a higher place, position, or volume (turn … the music), adv./prep./adj./noun/verb |
| 44 | 1 | Women's hairstyle in which the hair is swept up and fastened away from the face and neck |
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