- Letters: M/ACINOT
- Words: 66
- Points: 383
- Pangrams: 6
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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 | Protein building block acid, or a NH₂ group, noun |
| 2 | 1 | A supply of bullets, slang abbreviation |
| 3 | 1 | Smelly cleaning fluid, NH₃ |
| 4 | 1 | Slang abbr. for a prenatal test that takes fluid from a uterus with a needle, noun |
| 5 | 1 | Related to the membrane that encloses an embryo, pangram (… fluid) |
| 6 | 1 | Study of the names, shapes, sizes, and connections of your body parts (Gray's …), adj. form is a pangram |
| 7 | 1 | Jungian term for inner ♀ part of ♂ |
| 8 | 1 | Bring to life (cartoons), verb; or living, adj. |
| 9 | 3 | Basic unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb), adj. form that means just one of these is a pangram |
| 10 | 1 | Alligator with name similar to, or same as, British Caribbean islands (George Town) |
| 11 | 1 | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 12 | 1 | Clothing that helps you hide, slang abbr. |
| 13 | 1 | Alt name for plant that drives felines wild, compound made from feline + breath candy |
| 14 | 1 | Aromatic spice made from the peeled, dried, and rolled bark of a Southeast Asian tree |
| 15 | 1 | Prolonged unconscious state |
| 16 | 1 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 17 | 1 | Curly punctuation mark that separates phrases |
| 18 | 1 | Perpetrate, pledge, or put into a mental ward |
| 19 | 1 | Ordinary, or shared (in …), adj. |
| 20 | 2 | Make something impure by adding a poison or pollutant, two noun forms are pangrams |
| 21 | 1 | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 22 | 1 | Copy someone’s speech or mannerisms |
| 23 | 1 | Extremely close & personal (… apparel) |
| 24 | 1 | Permanently injure |
| 25 | 1 | Primary (Street), adj. |
| 26 | 1 | Keep up (appearances), or support; verb |
| 27 | 3 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 28 | 1 | Wealth that’s an evil influence, per the New Testament & Milton |
| 29 | 5 | Craze, noun (Beatle-…) |
| 30 | 1 | Large tube-shaped pasta, pangram |
| 31 | 1 | Exodus food from the sky |
| 32 | 1 | Ray (fish) |
| 33 | 1 | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 34 | 1 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 35 | 1 | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 36 | 1 | small, handheld device for taking movies |
| 37 | 1 | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 38 | 1 | Smallest amount (the … bet at this table is $100) |
| 39 | 1 | Underling, as seen in “Despicable Me” |
| 40 | 1 | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 41 | 1 | Catcher’s glove, or former Sen. Romney |
| 42 | 1 | Sound of pain or sexual pleasure (Harry Potter’s ghost “…ing Myrtle”) |
| 43 | 1 | Water ditch surrounding a castle |
| 44 | 1 | 1–channel sound abbreviation, or glandular fever “kissing disease” abbreviation |
| 45 | 1 | NASA Apollo missions landed on or circled it |
| 46 | 1 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point), adj.; or obscure verb meaning to raise a topic for discussion |
| 47 | 2 | Action by which things change position, or parliamentary proposal; noun |
| 48 | 1 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 49 | 1 | Propose a candidate for election or an honor |
| 50 | 1 | Military slang abbr. for a senior enlisted person (sgt., e.g.) expressed as a negation |
| 51 | 1 | Leave out, verb |
| 52 | 1 | Turkish Empire; or low, upholstered seat or footstool without a back or arms |
| 53 | 1 | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 54 | 1 | Ketchup & ragù fruit |
| 55 | 1 | ♂ feline, compound that starts with a ♂ name (Selleck, Petty, e.g.) |
| 56 | 1 | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
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