- Letters: L/DEGHIT
- Words: 66
- Points: 305
- Pangrams: 4
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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 | Erase (on a computer screen, e.g.) |
| 2 | 1 | Place to get cold cuts |
| 3 | 2 | Please someone greatly (Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon …”), verb/noun pangram |
| 4 | 1 | Michael’s computer company, or farmer locale in kid’s song |
| 5 | 1 | Greek letter Δ-shaped upper arm & shoulder muscle, slang abbr. |
| 6 | 2 | Pass time aimlessly or unproductively |
| 7 | 1 | Pickle spice |
| 8 | 2 | Leave out a sound or syllable when speaking |
| 9 | 1 | Select group that’s superior |
| 10 | 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 |
| 11 | 2 | Castrate (a horse) |
| 12 | 1 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 13 | 1 | Icy, or extremely cold, literary adj. |
| 14 | 1 | Yiddish for $, bet during dreidel game |
| 15 | 2 | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 16 | 3 | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 17 | 2 | Fish breathing organ |
| 18 | 1 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 19 | 2 | What an engineless plane does (hanging optional), or dental floss brand |
| 20 | 2 | Back of your foot (Achilles’ weakness), noun; or (of a dog) follow closely |
| 21 | 1 | Satan’s domain |
| 22 | 2 | Mark text with a yellow pen, verb; or a memorable event (her visit was the … of my day), compound noun/verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 23 | 2 | What Jack & Jill went up |
| 24 | 1 | Sword or dagger handle |
| 25 | 1 | Grasp in your hands, or wait “on …” (on a call with tech support, e.g.) |
| 26 | 2 | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but not in gear |
| 27 | 1 | Summary opening sentence or paragraph of a news article (bury the …); NOT "follow" antonym |
| 28 | 1 | Narrow, projecting cliff “shelf,” or window sill |
| 29 | 1 | Body part that connects the rest of you to your feet |
| 30 | 1 | Conforming to the law or to rules, adj., also a slang abbreviation (they were married at the time of the birth, so their baby was …) |
| 31 | 1 | Cover for the top of a jar; or skin that covers your eye |
| 32 | 1 | Be in a horizontal resting position, or say something false |
| 33 | 1 | Feudal superior (“Yes, my …”) |
| 34 | 2 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …), past tense is a pangram |
| 35 | 2 | Singsong accent |
| 36 | 1 | Low-calorie or low-fat in ad-speak (Miller … beer) |
| 37 | 1 | Skinny, supple, & graceful (her … figure) |
| 38 | 1 | Small (Stuart or Chicken …), adj. |
| 39 | 1 | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 40 | 1 | Squiggly line placed over N in Spanish (piñata, e.g.) |
| 41 | 2 | Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square |
| 42 | 2 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 43 | 2 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 44 | 1 | Cultivation of land, or prepped soil surface, noun; rhymes with “extreme dirt” synonym |
| 45 | 2 | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house |
| 46 | 1 | Dot above an i or j, or really small amount |
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