- Letters: U/DEFILP
- Words: 48
- Points: 206
- 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.
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 | 2 | D | Believe true even when you know better |
| 2 | 1 | D | Slang for “guy” (Aerosmith “… Looks Like a Lady”), noun; dress up elaborately, verb |
| 3 | 2 | D | Pistol fight at dawn |
| 4 | 1 | D | Beer brand in “The Simpsons,” or actress Hilary of “A Cinderella Story”) |
| 5 | 2 | D | Cloth bag named for Belgian city where its fabric was made |
| 6 | 2 | D | Not shiny, adjective/verb |
| 7 | 2 | D | Trick (… into) |
| 8 | 1 | D | In music, rhythm based on two main beats to the measure |
| 9 | 2 | E | Dodge, or fail to be grasped |
| 10 | 2 | F | Prolonged bitter quarrel, or “Family …” game show, noun/verb |
| 11 | 1 | F | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 12 | 2 | F | Dryer lint, noun, or what you do to a flat pillow (… up) |
| 13 | 1 | F | Liquid |
| 14 | 2 | F | Confuse or stupefy, esp. with alcohol, usually has BE– prefix |
| 15 | 2 | F | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 16 | 2 | F | Bring to reality (… your dreams), or carry out a duty (… your obligations) |
| 17 | 1 | F | At capacity (I can’t finish the meal, I’m …), adj. |
| 18 | 1 | L | In place of (in … of flowers), French |
| 19 | 1 | L | The forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail, noun; or turn the head of a ship toward the wind, verb |
| 20 | 2 | L | Soothe (… into a false sense of security), verb; or a pause in activity, noun |
| 21 | 1 | L | Doozy, or “To Sir With Love” singer |
| 22 | 1 | P | Crash involving several vehicles, or accumulation (of work, e.g.), compound |
| 23 | 2 | P | Small pool of rainwater on the ground, noun/verb |
| 24 | 2 | P | Short explosive burst of breath or wind, noun; or expand (...up or out), verb |
| 25 | 2 | P | Literary for “whimper” (usually ends in –ING) |
| 26 | 1 | P | Hungarian herding dog with dreadlocks |
| 27 | 2 | P | Tug on, verb |
| 28 | 2 | P | Soft, wet, shapeless mass (“… Fiction” film), or floating bits of fruit in orange juice, noun/verb |
| 29 | 1 | P | Student, or black dot at center of eye |
| 30 | 1 | U | Toward a higher place, position, or volume (turn … the music), adv./prep./adj./noun/verb |
| 31 | 1 | U | In a team game played on grass, the direction the offensive team is facing, pangram |
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