Bee Roots for 2025-01-17

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
  • Letters: N/CEFILT
  • Words: 54
  • Points: 279
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: Plantura Magazin

Table content

root #answers coveredanswer's first letterclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11C1/100th of a dollar
22CCustomer
31CMedical facility (health …)
41EAchieving max productivity, or not wasteful (energy …), adj.
51ESmall, delicate, impish; as a Keebler worker, adj.
61EFriendly understanding between countries (French)
71ETempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage
501EName of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house
81FDeceptive movement in sports (esp. swordplay), not "keel over"
91FCat adj./noun
101FWall (white picket, chain-link), engage in swordplay, or deal in stolen goods; noun/verb
111FVeg & seed used in cooking, esp. Italian
121FQuinceañera age
141FImpose a $ penalty (the judge …d him $100 for speeding)
151FHaving limits (amount), not ∞, adj.
161FMichigan city with tainted water, or stone that makes sparks
41IAchieving max productivity, or not wasteful (energy …), adj.
131IAdd material until the container or hole is at capacity
151IHaving limits (amount), not ∞, adj.
171IProvoke unlawful behavior (… a riot)
181ITend toward or feel favorably disposed toward, verb; or slope, noun
191IPass on a disease to someone, adjective form is a pangram
201IChange the form of a word to express a particular grammatical function or attribute, or vary intonation to express mood, pangram verb (usually with –ION suffix)
211ICause something unpleasant to be suffered by someone (injuries, damage)
221IConcave belly button, slang
231IComputer chip maker; or what spies collect, abbr.
241IBrains, faculty of reasoning & understanding objectively; or a smart person
251IDetermined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun
291IAllow; rent
262LMerciful, not strict (as a judge or parent, e.g.)
271LPre–Easter holiday when you give up meat, noun; or “borrowed” counterpart, verb
281LBean for soup or curry
301LBank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt
311LWhat a palm reader checks to see when you’ll die, or “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” friend assistance, compound
321LA queue, what you wait in for your turn
331LCloth napkin fabric
341LMainly brown & gray finch with a reddish breast & forehead (rhymes with the type of piano I have)
351LDryer fluff
361LHoriz. beam across a door or window top
371NHawaiian goose & state bird
381N“Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb
391NPleasant in manner; or city in SE France
401NYour sibling’s daughter
411NNumber of justices on Supreme Court
421NOne more than the number of holes on a golf course
431NPart of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling
441TAdolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19
451TA principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film
461TShelter you sleep in while camping
471TArchaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine”
481TFork prong
491TShade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb

About this site

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