Bee Roots for 2022-07-05

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
  • Letters: C/ABGIKN
  • Words: 26
  • Points: 142
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: CBS News

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
root #answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
11AB5Surprised (taken …), adv.
21AB5Bead calculator
41AC4Trendy smoothie berry
51AC5Get a top grade on a test
31AC6African or Australian wattle tree
61BA4Part of body containing your spine
71BA4French for bench; judges sit “en …” as a full court
61BA7Part of body containing your spine
101CA5Private room or compartment on a ship; small wooden house in a remote area (Abe Lincoln grew up in a log …)
161CA5Tropical “lily”
91CA6Poolside gazebo
111CA6Barred enclosure, or actor Nicolas
121CA6Baked dessert, often with layers and icing; traditional birthday party fare
141CA6Leggy French dance
151CA6Walking stick, or striped peppermint Xmas crook
81CA7Taxi, noun; or travel in a taxi, verb
131CA7Cylindrical metal container, noun; be capable, verb, fire from a job (slang verb)
171IC5Frozen water
181KI4Strike with foot, verb/noun
181KI7Strike with foot, verb/noun
191KI8Recoil (from a gun), or payoff, compound noun
201KN5Clever skill or talent for performing a task (she has a…for guessing correctly)
211KN10Decorative trinket or tchotchke; rhyyming compound that ends in a list word
231NI4Small cut from shaving, or Santa name (Old Saint…), noun/verb
221NI6Vitamin B3
231NI7Small cut from shaving, or Santa name (Old Saint…), noun/verb

About this site

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.