- Letters: T/CEIMNX
- Words: 41
- Points: 179
- 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 two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | CE | 4 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 1 | 1 | CE | 6 | Powder mixed for concrete & mortar |
| 3 | 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence |
| 6 | 1 | EM | 4 | Give off (radiation, signals) |
| 4 | 1 | EM | 6 | Med that induces vomiting |
| 5 | 1 | EM | 7 | Renowned (scholar); used with “domain” to mean gov property grab |
| 8 | 1 | EN | 6 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 7 | 1 | EN | 7 | Friendly understanding between countries, French |
| 8 | 1 | EN | 10 | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 10 | 1 | EX | 4 | Leave, verb; the door by which you leave, noun |
| 9 | 1 | EX | 6 | Cause strong feelings of enthusiasm |
| 11 | 1 | EX | 6 | Degree, size, scope, or amount (… of damage, to some …) |
| 12 | 1 | EX | 7 | (Of a species or volcano) has died out (gone…), adj. |
| 9 | 1 | EX | 10 | Cause strong feelings of enthusiasm |
| 13 | 1 | IM | 8 | About to happen (… demise, e.g.), adj. |
| 14 | 1 | IN | 6 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 15 | 1 | IN | 6 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 14 | 1 | IN | 10 | Provoke unlawful behavior (… a riot) |
| 16 | 1 | IT | 4 | One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register |
| 17 | 1 | ME | 4 | Encounter (I’m supposed to … him in the park) |
| 19 | 1 | ME | 4 | Dispense justice (“… out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 18 | 1 | ME | 6 | Experienced and trusted adviser, usually an older person |
| 21 | 1 | MI | 4 | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 22 | 1 | MI | 4 | Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today) |
| 23 | 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 24 | 1 | MI | 6 | Fingerless winter glove for a kid or Sen. Bernie Sanders at inauguration |
| 20 | 1 | MI | 7 | Imitative behavior, adj. (related to above & below words) |
| 25 | 1 | NE | 4 | Word you hear when it’s your turn at the deli |
| 27 | 1 | NI | 4 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 26 | 1 | NI | 8 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 28 | 1 | TE | 4 | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 29 | 1 | TE | 4 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 32 | 1 | TE | 4 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 4 | Short, written message sent by a mobile phone to another one |
| 31 | 1 | TE | 5 | Recent Christopher Nolan time-travel film, or a principle or belief |
| 30 | 1 | TE | 8 | Set of rooms within a house, or cheap multi-family bldg. |
| 34 | 1 | TI | 4 | What clocks measure & display |
| 36 | 1 | TI | 4 | Fork prong |
| 37 | 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 35 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 38 | 1 | TI | 7 | Small songbirds; plural; starts with “breast” slang & ends in “3 blind” rodent |
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.