- Letters: O/BEFILN
- Words: 47
- Points: 158
- 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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
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 | Acceptance that something is true, esp. in religion, noun (negative form is a pangram) |
| 2 | 1 | 1 followed by 9 zeroes (in US & France); Latin 2 prefix, ordinal form is a pangram |
| 3 | 1 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 4 | 1 | Sewing machine thread holder |
| 5 | 1 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 6 | 1 | Critic’s slang adj. for a wildly successful show or film |
| 7 | 1 | Heat water to 212°F or 100°C |
| 8 | 1 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 9 | 1 | Western string tie |
| 10 | 1 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 11 | 1 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 12 | 1 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 13 | 1 | Breast, slang |
| 14 | 1 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 15 | 1 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 16 | 1 | Black, poetic; and/or black wood (“… & Ivory”) |
| 17 | 1 | Person who has been convicted of a serious crime & often can’t vote in many places as a result |
| 18 | 1 | Sheet of ice atop the ocean, homophone of moving liquid |
| 19 | 1 | Minor weakness or eccentricity in someone’s character |
| 20 | 1 | Thin aluminum sheet for wrapping leftovers, noun; or thwart, verb (Curses! …ed again) |
| 21 | 1 | A book (A Shakespeare first … is quite valuable), a page in a book, or a book size; from Latin for “leaf” |
| 22 | 1 | Unwise person, court jester tarot card, noun; or to trick or deceive, verb |
| 23 | 1 | Collection of facts and tips, abbr. |
| 24 | 1 | Like a roaring “King” animal |
| 25 | 1 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 26 | 1 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 27 | 1 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 28 | 1 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 29 | 1 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 30 | 1 | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 31 | 2 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 32 | 1 | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 33 | 2 | Aristocrat, aristocratic, or righteous, NOT a Peace Prize from Oslo |
| 34 | 1 | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 35 | 1 | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 36 | 1 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 37 | 1 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 38 | 1 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 39 | 1 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
| 40 | 1 | Disconnected from the internet; or out of operation, compound adj. |
| 41 | 1 | Margarine |
| 42 | 1 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 43 | 1 | Skateboard jump, or Stan’s slapstick partner |
| 44 | 1 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 45 | 1 | Hooked up to the internet, compound adj. |
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 social media.
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