- Letters: T/CEIKLN
- Words: 60
- Points: 291
- 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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
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 | C | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 2 | 1 | C | Quote as evidence, adj. form meaning this can be done is a pangram |
| 3 | 2 | C | Customer |
| 4 | 1 | E | Wide-ranging tastes, styles, or ideas; adj. |
| 5 | 2 | E | Vote into office |
| 6 | 1 | E | Draw out a response, verb |
| 7 | 1 | E | Select group that’s superior |
| 8 | 1 | E | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 9 | 1 | E | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 55 | 1 | E | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house |
| 10 | 1 | I | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 11 | 1 | I | Computer chip maker; or what spies collect, abbr. |
| 12 | 1 | I | Brains, faculty of reasoning & understanding objectively; or a smart person |
| 13 | 1 | I | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 25 | 1 | I | Allow; rent |
| 26 | 1 | I | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 14 | 1 | K | Brightly colored, banded material made in Ghana |
| 15 | 1 | K | Large metal pot for cooking, usually with a handle (thats's a fine … of fish) |
| 16 | 1 | K | ♂ plaid skirt in Scotland |
| 17 | 1 | K | Relating to motion (… energy), adj. |
| 18 | 1 | K | Flying toy with a string & tail |
| 19 | 1 | K | Young cat |
| 20 | 1 | K | Bend down & rest on above to pray, propose marriage, or protest during the National Anthem |
| 21 | 1 | K | Make a scarf or blanket with yarn & needles, verb/adj. |
| 22 | 1 | L | Merciful, not strict (as a judge or parent, e.g.) |
| 23 | 1 | L | Pre–Easter holiday when you give up meat, noun; or “borrowed” counterpart, verb |
| 24 | 1 | L | Bean for soup or curry |
| 26 | 1 | L | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 27 | 1 | L | Singsong accent |
| 28 | 1 | L | Mainly brown & gray finch with a reddish breast & forehead (rhymes with the type of piano I have) |
| 29 | 1 | L | Dryer fluff |
| 30 | 1 | L | Horiz. beam across a door or window top |
| 31 | 1 | L | Low-calorie or low-fat in ad-speak (Miller … beer) |
| 32 | 1 | L | Small (Stuart or Chicken …), adj. |
| 33 | 1 | L | Young quahog, compound pangram |
| 34 | 1 | N | Often colorful & patterned shirt accessory worn with a suit, compound |
| 35 | 1 | N | Resembling an open-meshed fabric twisted, knotted, or woven together at regular intervals, compound |
| 36 | 1 | N | “Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb |
| 37 | 1 | N | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 38 | 1 | N | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 39 | 1 | T | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 40 | 1 | T | Able to move objects with your mind, pangram adj. |
| 41 | 1 | T | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 42 | 1 | T | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 43 | 1 | T | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 44 | 1 | T | Bloodsucking arachnid that transmits Lyme disease, or mechanical clock sound; noun/verb |
| 45 | 1 | T | Entry card for events & travel, or illegal parking citation |
| 46 | 1 | T | Lightly touch in a way that causes itching and often laughter |
| 47 | 1 | T | Polynesian or Maori god, or Polynesian style (… bar or torch, Kon-… raft) |
| 48 | 1 | T | Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square |
| 49 | 1 | T | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 50 | 1 | T | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 51 | 1 | T | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 52 | 1 | T | Fork prong |
| 53 | 1 | T | Sound of a small or faint bell, noun; or urinate, slang |
| 54 | 1 | T | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 55 | 1 | T | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house |
| 56 | 1 | T | Dot above an i or j, or really small amount |
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 social media.
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