- Letters: T/CDEHOU
- Words: 54
- Points: 233
- 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 | Sloping channel for sliding things down (…s & Ladders game—AKA Snakes & Ladders) |
| 2 | 1 | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 3 | 1 | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 4 | 1 | Cultured, refined, and well mannered, adj.; opposite (un-…) is much more common |
| 5 | 1 | Adorable (… as a button) or clever (don’t get … with me) |
| 6 | 1 | Cardboard person (how you make one), or spy intermediary, compound |
| 7 | 2 | Extract the essence of something by heating or boiling |
| 8 | 2 | Subtract (I have to … taxes from your weekly pay) |
| 9 | 2 | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 10 | 1 | Small round mark, noun/verb (… the i's and cross the t's) |
| 11 | 2 | Be uncritically fond (she …s on her grandkids) |
| 12 | 2 | Third person singular present of do (archaic) |
| 13 | 2 | Air conduit in a home or building (dryer …), or tube in a body (tear …) |
| 14 | 2 | Performance by 2 people (music, dance, etc.), noun/verb |
| 15 | 2 | Engrave metal, glass or stone (…ing); or corrode (…ed away by acid) |
| 16 | 1 | French for “study,” or short musical exercise piece |
| 17 | 2 | Owl sound, noun/verb |
| 18 | 1 | Rabbit cage, or open cabinet with shelves |
| 19 | 1 | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 20 | 1 | Opposite of in, adverb/adj./prep.; or disclose, against their will, a person's sexual orientation, verb |
| 21 | 1 | One-up, surpass, compound verb |
| 22 | 1 | Last word in name of Cambridge school M.I.T., abbr. |
| 23 | 1 | Short stick that holds up a golf ball, noun/verb |
| 24 | 1 | What you use to chew, plural |
| 25 | 2 | When the things you use to chew start to emerge, you chew on everything, and you drool all the time |
| 26 | 1 | Archaic form of “you” |
| 27 | 1 | Archaic singular “you” (“Romeo, wherefore art …”) |
| 28 | 2 | Heavy sound made by something falling on the floor, noun/verb |
| 29 | 1 | Appendage at the front of your foot (most have five per foot), noun/verb |
| 30 | 2 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 31 | 2 | What you chew with |
| 32 | 2 | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 33 | 2 | Come into or be in contact with, verb, past tense is a pangram |
| 34 | 1 | Acknowledgment of a point made at one's expense by another person (from French) |
| 35 | 2 | Promote, or offer horse racing tips |
| 36 | 1 | Make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance |
| 37 | 1 | Private instructor |
| 38 | 1 | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
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