- Letters: I/ACNOTX
- Words: 63
- Points: 393
- Pangrams: 2
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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
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first letter | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 2 | 1 | A | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 3 | 1 | A | What a director yells to start filming, noun |
| 4 | 1 | A | Ceremonially smear someone with oil, or designate as a successor |
| 5 | 2 | A | Medical term for extreme element O starvation; a complete lack of O |
| 6 | 1 | A | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife's nickname |
| 7 | 1 | A | Childish or playful tomfoolery, usually plural |
| 8 | 1 | A | Nerve disease or brain damage that causes slurred speech & poor muscle control |
| 9 | 1 | A | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 10 | 1 | A | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 31 | 1 | A | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 35 | 1 | A | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 50 | 1 | A | Poison (neuro-…), noun |
| 11 | 1 | C | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 12 | 1 | C | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram |
| 13 | 1 | C | Mexican or Spanish bar, or the Mos Eisley bar on Tatooine in “Star Wars” |
| 14 | 2 | C | Psychological term for abnormality of movement, noun (informally, immobile & unresponsive) |
| 15 | 1 | C | Chem. term for a positively charged particle (“days off work” synonym without the VA– prefix), noun |
| 16 | 1 | C | “Hi” or “Bye” in Italian (“… bella”) |
| 17 | 1 | C | Quote as evidence, adj. form meaning this can be done is a pangram |
| 18 | 1 | C | Central American raccoon |
| 19 | 1 | C | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 20 | 1 | C | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 21 | 1 | C | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 22 | 1 | C | Ice cream holder shape |
| 23 | 1 | C | (of a word or fact) imply, verb |
| 24 | 1 | C | Have or hold within (allergy warning on food label: may … nuts), or stifle (I’m so excited that I can hardly … myself), verb |
| 3 | 1 | I | What a director yells to start filming, noun |
| 25 | 2 | I | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
| 26 | 2 | I | Recite a spell or a prayer; chant or intone, verb, usually occurs in its -ation noun form |
| 27 | 1 | I | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 28 | 1 | I | Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete (I left with my dignity …), adj. |
| 29 | 1 | I | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 30 | 2 | I | Excite or stupefy by alcohol or a drug, verb, noun form meaning something that does this is a pangram, and so is the noun form meaning the state you're in if this happens to you |
| 31 | 1 | I | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 32 | 1 | I | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 47 | 1 | I | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 33 | 1 | N | Country, or temperance activist Carrie |
| 34 | 1 | N | Vitamin B3 |
| 35 | 1 | N | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 36 | 1 | N | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 49 | 1 | N | Poisonous, adj.; or Britney Spears hit |
| 37 | 1 | O | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 38 | 1 | T | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 39 | 2 | T | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 40 | 1 | T | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 41 | 2 | T | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 42 | 1 | T | Compulsory contribution to state revenue, noun/verb |
| 43 | 1 | T | Cab (De Niro “… Driver” film) |
| 44 | 1 | T | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 45 | 1 | T | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 46 | 2 | T | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 48 | 1 | T | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
| 49 | 1 | T | Poisonous, adj.; or Britney Spears hit |
| 50 | 1 | T | Poison (neuro-…), noun |
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