- Letters: N/ABEKMT
- Words: 50
- Points: 225
- 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.
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 | Become less intense (the storm suddenly …d) |
| 2 | 1 | Help commit a crime |
| 3 | 1 | Prayer-ending word |
| 4 | 1 | $ to join a poker game, or “before” prefix |
| 5 | 2 | It picks up TV or radio signals |
| 6 | 1 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 7 | 1 | Cause of annoyance, or DC Comics villain (he’s the … of my existence) |
| 8 | 3 | Where you save your money (piggy … or … of America); or the side of a river; with a suitable prefix, becomes a verb, and with a suitable prefix and suffix, becomes a pangram |
| 9 | 1 | Small chicken breed or boxing weight class |
| 10 | 1 | Ballet term for a movement in which one leg is moved outward from the body & in again, noun |
| 11 | 1 | Long, flat strip of squared wood or metal used to hold something in place (… down the hatches) |
| 12 | 1 | Legume (lima …), noun; or hit on the head, verb |
| 13 | 1 | Stir or strike vigorously, or trounce in a contest |
| 14 | 1 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 15 | 1 | Shape into a curve, or Oregon city |
| 16 | 1 | Cause to go (usually reflexive), literary compound verb made from exist + reach for and hold (I shall … myself to my room ) |
| 17 | 1 | Consume food |
| 18 | 1 | Flow or originate from (warmth from a fireplace, e.g.) |
| 19 | 1 | Rectal wash (Fleet, e.g.) |
| 20 | 1 | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 21 | 1 | Long, single-edged sword used by samurai |
| 22 | 1 | Eager (peachy-…), adj.; or wail in grief, verb |
| 23 | 1 | Brightly colored, banded material made in Ghana |
| 24 | 1 | Mid-leg joint, noun; or hit someone with one, verb |
| 25 | 1 | Florida creature AKA “sea cow” |
| 26 | 1 | Hair on a horse or ♂ lion’s neck |
| 27 | 1 | Exodus food from the sky |
| 28 | 1 | Ray (fish) |
| 29 | 2 | The average in math, noun; unkind, adj. (“… Girls”); or intend (I didn’t … to do it) |
| 30 | 1 | Experienced and trusted adviser, usually an older person |
| 31 | 1 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 32 | 1 | What you’re called (Kevin or Susan, e.g.) |
| 33 | 1 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 34 | 1 | Yellowish cotton cloth or pants made from it, named for city in China |
| 35 | 1 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 36 | 2 | Tidy |
| 37 | 1 | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 38 | 1 | Reach for and hold; remove (… away) |
| 39 | 1 | Armored vehicle with a large main gun |
| 40 | 1 | Japanese poem consisting of five lines, the first and third of which have five syllables and the other seven, making 31 syllables in all and giving a complete picture of an event or mood |
| 41 | 1 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 42 | 1 | Person a landlord rents to, one of two or more of these is a pangram |
| 43 | 1 | Set of rooms within a house, or cheap multi-family bldg. |
| 44 | 1 | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 45 | 1 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
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