- Letters: A/DILNTW
- Words: 44
- Points: 151
- 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. 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 | A | Yearly record book |
| 2 | 1 | A | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife's nickname |
| 3 | 1 | A | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 4 | 1 | A | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 16 | 1 | A | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …), past tense is a pangram |
| 32 | 1 | A | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 36 | 1 | A | Delay until a particular time or until something happens (… for it) |
| 5 | 1 | D | Facts & stats, computer info, or Star Trek Next Gen android |
| 6 | 1 | D | 1st appearance of light in the sky |
| 7 | 1 | D | What you turn on a rotary phone or radio knob (don't touch that …!) |
| 8 | 1 | I | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien), verb form is a pangram |
| 9 | 1 | I | Not on the coast |
| 10 | 1 | I | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface, compound |
| 11 | 1 | L | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 12 | 1 | L | Alight on the ground, verb/noun |
| 13 | 1 | L | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 14 | 1 | L | Area of short, mown grass in a yard, garden, or park |
| 15 | 2 | L | Put something down |
| 17 | 1 | N | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 18 | 1 | N | Nothing, Spanish |
| 19 | 1 | N | Greek water nymph, or dragonfly larva |
| 20 | 1 | N | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 21 | 1 | N | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 22 | 1 | N | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 23 | 1 | N | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 24 | 1 | T | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 25 | 1 | T | Moving air, coming from behind an aircraft, compound pangram |
| 26 | 1 | T | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 27 | 1 | T | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 28 | 1 | T | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 29 | 1 | T | Ankle bone |
| 30 | 1 | T | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 31 | 1 | T | Ocean ebb & flow at the beach, or laundry soap brand |
| 33 | 1 | T | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 34 | 1 | T | Archaic word for two, or writer Mark |
| 35 | 1 | W | Loud, unhappy sound of babies & banshees, NOT a humpback |
| 36 | 1 | W | Delay until a particular time or until something happens (… for it) |
| 37 | 1 | W | Barrier between rooms, or Pink Floyd album ("The …") |
| 38 | 1 | W | What a magician, wizard, or TSA agent waves |
| 39 | 1 | W | “Would like to do,” slang contraction |
| 40 | 1 | W | Have a desire to possess or do something |
| 41 | 1 | W | Unit of electric power |
| 42 | 1 | W | Area that is uncultivated or unfit for cultivation, compound made from opposites of tame and sea |
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