- Letters: P/DGINOR
- Words: 49
- Points: 265
- Pangrams: 3
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | DI | 7 | Put something down quickly into liquid, verb; or brief swim, noun |
| 2 | 1 | DO | 6 | Simpleton, or slang for drugs |
| 3 | 1 | DR | 4 | Let liquid fall, as a leaky faucet or melting ice cream cone, verb/noun |
| 5 | 1 | DR | 4 | Let fall, verb; or a tiny amount of liquid, noun |
| 4 | 1 | DR | 5 | Sag, or hang limply |
| 3 | 1 | DR | 8 | Let liquid fall, as a leaky faucet or melting ice cream cone, verb/noun |
| 4 | 1 | DR | 8 | Sag, or hang limply |
| 5 | 1 | DR | 8 | Let fall, verb; or a tiny amount of liquid, noun |
| 6 | 1 | GO | 4 | Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, or unpleasant messy gel |
| 7 | 1 | GO | 4 | Trail mix of dried fruit & nuts |
| 8 | 1 | GR | 4 | Grasp tightly, verb/noun |
| 9 | 1 | GR | 7 | Complain about something in a persistent, irritating way |
| 10 | 1 | GR | 7 | Search blindly or uncertainly with the hands; or fondle someone against their will |
| 8 | 1 | GR | 8 | Grasp tightly, verb/noun |
| 11 | 1 | NI | 7 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 14 | 1 | OP | 6 | Drug class with a current epidemic (OxyContin, e.g) |
| 12 | 1 | OP | 7 | Express a belief or judgement |
| 13 | 1 | OP | 7 | Belief or judgment (“In my humble …) |
| 19 | 1 | PI | 4 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 15 | 1 | PI | 6 | Grammatically simplified form of a language, NOT an urban avian pest, noun |
| 18 | 1 | PI | 6 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 20 | 1 | PI | 6 | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 21 | 1 | PI | 6 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 22 | 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 16 | 1 | PI | 7 | Animal that is the source of bacon, noun/verb |
| 17 | 1 | PI | 7 | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 19 | 1 | PI | 7 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 20 | 1 | PI | 9 | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 23 | 1 | PO | 4 | Bouncy “stick” |
| 24 | 1 | PO | 4 | Small lake, or “On Golden…” Henry & Jane Fonda film with Hepburn |
| 25 | 1 | PO | 4 | Early Atari table tennis game |
| 26 | 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang |
| 27 | 1 | PO | 4 | Lacking $, or worse than ideal |
| 30 | 1 | PO | 4 | Smutty images |
| 30 | 1 | PO | 5 | Smutty images |
| 29 | 1 | PO | 6 | Minute opening in a surface, especially the skin, noun; or be absorbed in the reading or study of something, verb |
| 23 | 1 | PO | 7 | Bouncy “stick” |
| 26 | 1 | PO | 7 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang |
| 28 | 1 | PO | 7 | Make a light explosive sound (… the cork, … the question) |
| 32 | 1 | PR | 4 | Self-righteously moralistic person |
| 34 | 1 | PR | 4 | Poke, nudge, or spur (reluctant person or cattle) |
| 36 | 1 | PR | 4 | Support (… up), verb; on-stage object or ballot initiative abbr., noun |
| 33 | 1 | PR | 5 | Existing before in time, adj. (Sorry, I have a … engagement) |
| 35 | 1 | PR | 5 | Fork or antler tine, or deer species (-horn) |
| 31 | 1 | PR | 7 | Deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of your own achievements, or those of someone close to you, noun/verb; or group of lions |
| 34 | 1 | PR | 8 | Poke, nudge, or spur (reluctant person or cattle) |
| 36 | 1 | PR | 8 | Support (… up), verb; on-stage object or ballot initiative abbr., noun |
| 37 | 1 | RI | 7 | Tear or pull something quickly or forcibly, verb/noun |
| 38 | 1 | RO | 6 | Strong cord made by twisting together strands of fibers, noun/verb |
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.