- Letters: L/CDIOTY
- Words: 51
- Points: 172
- Pangrams: 1
|
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
| |
|
Table content
|
| 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 | CL | 4 | Lump of earth, or dunce (slang insult) |
| 2 | 1 | CL | 4 | Lump of blood that stops bleeding or circulation |
| 3 | 1 | CL | 4 | Sicken with sweetness |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 4 | Wind up spirally, or Hamlet’s “mortal …” |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 4 | Low temperature, adj.; or flu-like illness, noun (I have a…) |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 4 | Young ♂ horse |
| 10 | 1 | CO | 4 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 7 | 1 | CO | 5 | Baby or horse upset tummy |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 5 | Reluctant to give details, especially about something regarded as sensitive |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 6 | Low temperature, adj.; or flu-like illness, noun (I have a…) |
| 10 | 1 | CO | 6 | “Warm” antonym, or “neat!” |
| 4 | 1 | CO | 7 | Supplement that amends a will |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 7 | In anatomy, a gelatinous substance; in chem., a mixture that doesn’t settle & can’t be separated |
| 12 | 1 | CY | 6 | Ride a bike; series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order |
| 15 | 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 14 | 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 16 | 1 | DI | 5 | Excellent example (that was a … of a game) |
| 13 | 1 | DI | 6 | Worthless amount (… squat), or guitarist Bo |
| 19 | 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 21 | 1 | DO | 4 | Stupid person |
| 18 | 1 | DO | 5 | Ornamental lace mat |
| 20 | 1 | DO | 5 | Move on a mobile platform, for example a movie camera |
| 17 | 1 | DO | 8 | Tame, adj. |
| 22 | 1 | IC | 5 | Frozen water |
| 23 | 1 | ID | 4 | Not doing anything |
| 24 | 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 25 | 1 | ID | 4 | Extremely happy scene or poem |
| 25 | 1 | ID | 5 | Extremely happy scene or poem |
| 25 | 1 | ID | 7 | Extremely happy scene or poem |
| 26 | 1 | IL | 4 | not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car) |
| 27 | 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 27 | 1 | IL | 9 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 28 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 29 | 1 | LI | 4 | Monet floral subject (water …) |
| 27 | 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 27 | 1 | LI | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 30 | 1 | LO | 4 | Crazy, Spanish |
| 31 | 1 | LO | 4 | A particular point or place |
| 32 | 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 33 | 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 34 | 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 35 | 1 | OD | 5 | Opposite of even (math); unusual |
| 36 | 1 | OI | 4 | Viscous liquid used for lubrication, noun/verb; (food) a fat that's liquid at room temperature |
| 37 | 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 39 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 40 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 38 | 1 | TI | 6 | Neatly arranged, adj.; or neaten up, verb |
| 41 | 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 42 | 1 | TO | 4 | Informed, notified, related a story; past tense verb |
| 43 | 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 44 | 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
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.