- Letters: L/DFGINO
- Words: 63
- Points: 340
- Pangrams: 3
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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 | D | Pass time aimlessly or unproductively |
| 2 | 1 | D | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 3 | 1 | D | Pickle spice |
| 4 | 1 | D | Pineapple brand, noun; or distribute (… out portions of food) |
| 5 | 2 | D | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 6 | 1 | D | Scribble or draw absentmindedly |
| 7 | 1 | F | Violin, especially when used to play folk music, noun/verb |
| 8 | 1 | F | Folder of related papers, or tool for smoothing edges (fingernails, e.g.), noun/verb |
| 9 | 2 | F | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 10 | 2 | F | Throw forcefully (monkeys often … poop at spectators) |
| 11 | 2 | F | Whip (a dead horse?), verb |
| 12 | 2 | F | Weather event involving rivers and streams overflowing, noun/verb (it was a 100-year …), gerund form is a pangram |
| 13 | 2 | F | Thin aluminum sheet for wrapping leftovers, noun; or thwart, verb (Curses! …ed again) |
| 14 | 2 | F | What you do to sheets after laundry, or quit a hand in poker, gerund form is a pangram |
| 15 | 1 | F | A book (A Shakespeare first … is quite valuable), a page in a book, or a book size; from Latin for “leaf” |
| 16 | 1 | F | Stroke or caress lovingly or erotically, gerund form is a pangram |
| 17 | 2 | F | Unwise person, court jester tarot card, noun; or to trick or deceive, verb |
| 18 | 1 | G | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 19 | 1 | G | Male escort; Richard Gere “American …” film |
| 20 | 2 | G | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 21 | 2 | G | Fish breathing organ |
| 22 | 1 | G | What an engineless plane does (hanging optional), or dental floss brand |
| 23 | 1 | G | Eye protector for swimming or skiing; or stare with wide & bulging eyes |
| 24 | 1 | G | Element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 25 | 2 | G | Sport that has been described as "a good walk spoiled" (often attributed to Mark Twain, who probably never said it) |
| 26 | 1 | G | Popular web search site |
| 27 | 1 | G | Large number (10¹⁰⁰), NOT a web search site (rather, the inspiration for the search site's name) |
| 9 | 1 | I | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 28 | 1 | I | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but not in gear |
| 29 | 1 | I | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 30 | 1 | I | Ice house |
| 31 | 1 | I | Material that plugs a hole, noun; or build on vacant land in a dense city |
| 32 | 1 | L | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 33 | 1 | L | Jargon |
| 34 | 1 | L | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 35 | 1 | L | Provide someone with a place to sleep (at a ski resort?) |
| 36 | 1 | L | Tree trunk that has been cut or fallen down; official record of events, noun/verb |
| 37 | 1 | L | Act of entering a computer username & password, compound noun |
| 38 | 1 | L | Company graphic symbol; Target’s is a red bullseye ◎ |
| 39 | 1 | L | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 40 | 2 | L | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 41 | 2 | L | “Short” antonym, adj.; or yearn (for) |
| 42 | 1 | L | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 43 | 1 | N | Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt) |
| 44 | 1 | N | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 45 | 1 | N | Egg pasta (limp…), noun; or improvise or play casually on a musical instrument |
| 46 | 1 | O | Eye amorously |
| 47 | 1 | O | Viscous liquid used for lubrication, noun/verb; (food) a fat that's liquid at room temperature |
| 48 | 1 | O | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 49 | 1 | O | Dark Chinese tea (black dragon) |
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