- Letters: N/CFILOT
- Words: 42
- Points: 222
- 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. 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 | CL | 6 | Medical facility (health …) |
| 4 | 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 5 | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
| 7 | 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 2 | 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 3 | 1 | CO | 6 | Burial box |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 6 | Duck or other meat cooked & preserved in its own fat, French |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 7 | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 8 | Serious disagreement or argument, noun/verb |
| 10 | 1 | CO | 9 | Debutante ball |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 14 | 1 | FI | 6 | “Done” in Italian |
| 12 | 1 | FI | 7 | Book with made-up stories |
| 15 | 1 | FL | 5 | Michigan city with tainted water, or stone that makes sparks |
| 16 | 1 | FO | 4 | Type face; in some churches, it holds water for baptism |
| 17 | 1 | IC | 4 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 17 | 1 | IC | 6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 19 | 1 | IN | 4 | Collection of facts and tips, abbr. |
| 20 | 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 13 | 1 | IN | 6 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 18 | 1 | IN | 7 | Cause something unpleasant to be suffered by someone (injuries, damage) |
| 18 | 1 | IN | 10 | Cause something unpleasant to be suffered by someone (injuries, damage) |
| 21 | 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 22 | 1 | LI | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 23 | 1 | LI | 4 | Roaring “… King” animal that travels in a pride |
| 24 | 1 | LO | 4 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 25 | 1 | LO | 4 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 26 | 1 | LO | 6 | Moisturizing or suntan cream |
| 28 | 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 29 | 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 27 | 1 | NO | 9 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 12 | 1 | NO | 10 | Book with made-up stories |
| 30 | 1 | OC | 9 | 1 followed 27 zeroes; Latin 8 prefix |
| 32 | 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 31 | 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 35 | 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 33 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 34 | 1 | TI | 7 | Thin metal sheet for wrapping leftovers or making hats for conspiracy theorists, compound |
| 37 | 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car-…) |
| 36 | 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
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.