- Letters: L/AFINPT
- Words: 62
- Points: 262
- 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.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 7 | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 2 | 1 | AN | 4 | Uptight, or butt-related; adj. |
| 3 | 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 4 | 1 | AP | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 60 | 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 5 | 1 | FA | 4 | Don’t pass a test |
| 6 | 1 | FA | 4 | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 8 | 1 | FA | 5 | Deadly, adj. (“…Attraction” film) |
| 7 | 1 | FA | 7 | With a backend in the shape of a device for moving air, compound (… pigeon) |
| 10 | 1 | FI | 4 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 12 | 1 | FI | 5 | Last one (…exam, “… Countdown”) |
| 9 | 1 | FI | 6 | Of or due from a son or daughter, adj. |
| 11 | 1 | FI | 6 | Obscure noun for a stimulant; starts with above; homophone of Queen Elizabeth’s late husband Prince … |
| 13 | 1 | FI | 6 | Ornament at end or top of an object |
| 15 | 1 | FL | 4 | Caramel-topped custard |
| 16 | 1 | FL | 4 | What Old Glory does in the breeze, or what birds do to their wings to take off; verb |
| 17 | 1 | FL | 4 | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 19 | 1 | FL | 4 | Turn over pancakes to cook the bottoms, verb; or comedian …Wilson |
| 21 | 1 | FL | 4 | Move swiftly & lightly, as a bird, e.g. (... about) |
| 14 | 1 | FL | 5 | Swing (arms) wildly |
| 18 | 1 | FL | 5 | Michigan city with tainted water, or stone that makes sparks |
| 20 | 1 | FL | 8 | Not serious or respectful |
| 10 | 1 | IN | 6 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 22 | 1 | IN | 7 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 25 | 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 23 | 1 | LA | 5 | Hawaiian island or porch |
| 24 | 1 | LA | 7 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 26 | 1 | LI | 4 | Raise up (fork…), not Uber competitor |
| 28 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 29 | 1 | LI | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 30 | 1 | NA | 4 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 31 | 1 | NA | 5 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 32 | 1 | PA | 4 | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 36 | 1 | PA | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 37 | 1 | PA | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 38 | 1 | PA | 5 | Pontiff adj. |
| 33 | 1 | PA | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 34 | 1 | PA | 7 | Roof of the mouth |
| 39 | 1 | PA | 7 | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin, and/or plural in some puzzles) |
| 35 | 1 | PA | 8 | Resembling a royal residence (Buckingham?); spacious & splendid, adj. |
| 41 | 1 | PI | 4 | Tablet of medicine |
| 40 | 1 | PI | 5 | Rice cooked in broth with spice & veg or meat |
| 42 | 1 | PI | 7 | Large duck named for its hind feathers; compound; ends in list word; think “…the...on the donkey” kid’s party game |
| 43 | 1 | PI | 7 | Hidden or unsuspected danger |
| 48 | 1 | PL | 4 | Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb |
| 51 | 1 | PL | 4 | Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym |
| 44 | 1 | PL | 5 | Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj. |
| 47 | 1 | PL | 5 | Hair braid, noun/verb |
| 49 | 1 | PL | 5 | It has leaves, roots, & flowers (potted …), noun; or place a seed in the ground, verb |
| 45 | 1 | PL | 6 | Legal term for an accusation, or literary noun for a grievance; usually starts with COM– |
| 52 | 1 | PL | 6 | Flexible, often has COM– prefix; anagram of legal term for an accusation |
| 50 | 1 | PL | 8 | Banana variety |
| 46 | 1 | PL | 9 | Person who brings a lawsuit |
| 53 | 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 55 | 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 57 | 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 56 | 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 54 | 1 | TA | 7 | Flat appendage at the end of the body of an aquatic animal (compound) |
| 59 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 60 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 58 | 1 | TI | 7 | Common bland-tasting fish |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech 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.
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
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.