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 | 3 | C | Stick to tightly (static …), as Saran Wrap or a needy toddler |
2 | 1 | C | Medical facility (health …) |
3 | 2 | C | Reason to use Drāno, or wooden shoe, or a type of dancing |
4 | 1 | C | Identical (genetic) copy, or make one, noun/verb |
5 | 1 | C | Hint, or what a detective seeks (Get a …!), noun/verb |
6 | 1 | C | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
7 | 2 | C | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
8 | 2 | C | Wind up spirally, verb/noun (Hamlet’s “mortal …”) |
9 | 2 | C | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
10 | 1 | C | Baby or horse upset tummy |
11 | 2 | C | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
12 | 1 | C | Swindle, verb; someone serving a prison sentence (noun, slang) |
13 | 1 | C | Ice cream holder shape |
14 | 1 | C | Soft murmur made by a dove or pigeon, noun/verb |
15 | 2 | C | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
16 | 1 | C | Elected or appointed group (UN Security, student, or city…), noun + pangram person on that body (2 words) |
17 | 1 | C | Something that signals an actor or other performer, noun/verb |
18 | 2 | C | Remove unwanted from the herd |
19 | 1 | C | Skill in achieving one’s ends by deceit (…thieves evaded the alarm) , adj. |
20 | 1 | I | Frozen water |
21 | 2 | I | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
22 | 1 | I | Tend toward or feel favorably disposed toward, verb; or slope, noun |
23 | 1 | I | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
26 | 1 | I | Thinking that is rational |
24 | 1 | L | Crazy, Spanish |
25 | 1 | L | A particular point or place |
26 | 1 | L | Thinking that is rational |
27 | 1 | N | Papal ambassador |
28 | 1 | O | In architecture, an eye-like opening, for example a circular window, singular ends in S, but plural can appear in the Bee |
3 | 2 | U | Reason to use Drāno, or wooden shoe, or a type of dancing |
8 | 2 | U | Wind up spirally, verb/noun (Hamlet’s “mortal …”) |
15 | 1 | U | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
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