- Letters: I/ALMPRT
- Words: 70
- Points: 284
- 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 | Letters transported by plane (compound) |
| 2 | 1 | A | Opera solo |
| 3 | 1 | A | Seed covering |
| 4 | 1 | A | Space underneath your shoulder, where your deodorant goes, compound |
| 5 | 2 | A | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 13 | 1 | A | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …), past tense is a pangram |
| 60 | 1 | A | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 6 | 1 | I | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 7 | 1 | I | Weaken or damage something, especially a human function (visual …) |
| 8 | 1 | I | African antelope or Chevy sedan |
| 9 | 1 | I | Bestow |
| 32 | 1 | I | Incomplete; or tending to favor someone or something, negated form is a pangram |
| 10 | 1 | L | Animal or criminal den |
| 11 | 1 | L | Cowboy rope |
| 12 | 1 | L | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 14 | 1 | L | Singsong accent |
| 15 | 1 | L | Peru capital, or bean |
| 16 | 1 | L | Size, speed, or amount restriction |
| 17 | 1 | L | Walk with a bad leg, verb; or soggy noodle adj. |
| 18 | 1 | L | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 19 | 1 | M | Letters you get or send |
| 20 | 1 | M | Permanently injure |
| 21 | 2 | M | Ague, or swamp fever from mosquitoes |
| 22 | 1 | M | Relating to the relationship of wedded couples (… bliss) |
| 23 | 1 | M | Relating to the armed forces (the dictator imposed … law) |
| 24 | 1 | M | Armed vigilante group; 2nd Amendment's “Well-regulated …” |
| 25 | 1 | M | Wheat or pepper grinder |
| 26 | 1 | M | Relating to the bicuspid heart valve between the left atrium & left ventricle, adj. |
| 27 | 1 | M | Catcher’s glove, or former Sen. Romney |
| 28 | 1 | P | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 29 | 1 | P | Twosome (socks, aces, e.g.) |
| 30 | 1 | P | Resembling a royal residence (Buckingham?); spacious & splendid, adj. |
| 31 | 1 | P | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin) |
| 32 | 1 | P | Incomplete; or tending to favor someone or something, negated form is a pangram |
| 33 | 1 | P | Musical suite of variations, usually for a solo instrument |
| 34 | 1 | P | Tablet of medicine |
| 35 | 1 | P | Tall vertical structure that supports or decorates a building; or, figuratively, someone who reliably supports a group (… of the community) |
| 36 | 1 | P | ♂ who controls prostitutes, noun/verb |
| 37 | 1 | P | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 38 | 1 | P | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 39 | 1 | P | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 40 | 1 | P | Hair braid, noun/verb |
| 41 | 1 | P | Stiffly formal and respectable (… and proper) |
| 42 | 1 | P | Original or primitive; or Arthur Janov's scream |
| 43 | 1 | P | Spend time making minor adjustments to one's hair, makeup, or clothes |
| 44 | 1 | R | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 45 | 1 | R | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 46 | 1 | R | Rodent hind appendage, fish, or hair style; or round file, compound |
| 47 | 1 | R | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 48 | 1 | R | Small stream |
| 49 | 1 | T | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 50 | 1 | T | Red light at back of car, compound |
| 51 | 1 | T | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 52 | 1 | T | Ankle bone |
| 53 | 1 | T | Japanese rich, naturally fermented soy sauce |
| 54 | 1 | T | Animal similar in appearance to a pig, lives in Central & S America & SE Asia |
| 55 | 1 | T | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 56 | 1 | T | Native Am conical hut; Spelling Bee accepts 3 spellings |
| 57 | 1 | T | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 58 | 1 | T | Common bland-tasting fish |
| 59 | 1 | T | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 60 | 1 | T | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 61 | 1 | T | Forest path, noun; follow or fall behind, verb |
| 62 | 1 | T | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 63 | 1 | T | Courtroom proceeding |
| 64 | 1 | T | Vibratory sound, Star Trek symbiotic species (Dax, e.g.), or how Spanish people say “R” |
| 65 | 1 | T | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
| 66 | 1 | T | Journey, noun (you’ve won a … to Paris!), or stumble (… over your own 2 feet), verb |
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