- Letters: N/DELOTW
- Words: 71
- Points: 301
- 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.
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 | 2 | D | Indicate, or stand as a name or symbol for (Ω …s electrical resistance) |
| 2 | 2 | D | Make an impression on a car bumper after a collision, verb/noun |
| 3 | 1 | D | Easing of hostility between countries (French) |
| 4 | 1 | D | Put on (… we now our gay apparel) |
| 5 | 1 | D | Give to a good cause |
| 6 | 1 | D | Finished (with a task) |
| 7 | 2 | D | ↓ elevator button you push to go to the lobby from a higher floor; or soft feathers that keep ducks warm |
| 8 | 1 | D | The main business or commercial area of a city (also, Petula Clark hit song), compound |
| 9 | 1 | E | Final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story, noun/verb |
| 10 | 1 | E | Explanatory text printed after the last chapter of a book, compound noun |
| 11 | 2 | E | Bequeath $, or given by "…ed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" |
| 12 | 1 | E | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 14 | 1 | L | Allow someone to borrow from you (“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, … me your ears”) |
| 15 | 1 | L | Pre–Easter holiday when you give up meat, noun; or “borrowed” counterpart, verb |
| 16 | 1 | L | Slowly, in music & Italian |
| 17 | 1 | L | Disappointment, or a nursing mother's release of milk, pangram |
| 18 | 1 | L | Solitary (… wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 19 | 1 | L | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 20 | 1 | L | Slang compound adj. for mean & unfair (… dog), or noun for “inside info” (get the … on), compound |
| 21 | 2 | N | Require; verb/noun |
| 22 | 2 | N | Tool to sew, noun; or goad, verb |
| 23 | 1 | N | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 24 | 1 | N | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 25 | 1 | N | Open-meshed fabric twisted, knotted, or woven together at regular intervals, noun/verb |
| 26 | 2 | N | “Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb |
| 27 | 1 | N | Supporting post on a staircase or railing |
| 28 | 1 | N | Aquatic salamander, or former House Speaker Gingrich |
| 29 | 1 | N | Unit of force named after Sir Isaac …, or fig cookie |
| 30 | 1 | N | Move your head up and down a little, usually to signal agreement, verb/noun |
| 31 | 1 | N | Connecting point |
| 32 | 1 | N | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 33 | 1 | N | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 34 | 1 | N | Group of 9 (musicians) |
| 35 | 2 | N | Egg pasta (limp…), noun; or improvise or play casually on a musical instrument |
| 36 | 1 | N | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 37 | 2 | N | What you pass to someone in class, or ♪ in music |
| 38 | 1 | O | Greek or Roman building used for musical performances (smaller than theaters) |
| 39 | 1 | O | Having lived for a long time |
| 40 | 1 | O | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 41 | 1 | O | Possess, verb; or something that belongs to you, pronoun (I got QB on my …) |
| 42 | 1 | T | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 43 | 2 | T | Frequently behave in a certain way, or look after (serve drinks at a bar, e.g.) |
| 44 | 1 | T | Cord that attaches bone to muscle (your Achilles …), noun |
| 45 | 1 | T | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 46 | 2 | T | Projecting piece of wood attached to a mortise, noun; or connect with one of those, verb |
| 47 | 2 | T | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 48 | 2 | T | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 49 | 1 | T | 1,000 kilograms, UK spelling |
| 50 | 1 | T | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 51 | 1 | T | Place smaller than a city & larger than a village |
| 52 | 1 | T | Slang abbr. for a preadolescent; change last letter in above |
| 13 | 1 | W | Leave; move from one place to another |
| 53 | 2 | W | Go, in a non-linear route/meander (said about a person, river, or path) |
| 54 | 1 | W | Literary noun & adj. for “custom” (as was her …, he was … to), or contraction of “will not” |
| 55 | 1 | W | Chinese dumpling (… soup) |
| 56 | 1 | W | Forest (Pooh’s “100 acre …”) or tree flesh, noun |
| 57 | 1 | W | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/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 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