Bee Roots for 2022-08-29

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: U/ADNORT
  • Words: 39
  • Points: 170
  • Pangrams: 2
Source: pngwing.com

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, ...)
11AR6Nearby (it's … here somewhere, just … the corner) adj.; or encircling, preposition
21AU4Parent’s sister
31AU4Supernatural glow encircling a person
51AU4Car, abbr., or “self” prefix
41AU6Polar lights (… Borealis)
61DA5Make someone feel intimidated or apprehensive (a task, opponent, or situation)
91DO4Gloomy appearance or manner
81DO5Ring-shaped fried cake, modern spelling
101DU5Shoulder-shrug non-response to a question; “I have no idea”; slang
111NO4In grammar, a person, place or thing
121OR7Full, round, and imposing voice; or pompous writing
131OU5One-up, surpass, compound verb
151OU5Closing show music (antonym begins with IN–)
162OU6Sprint more quickly or farther in a footrace than someone else (compound)
141OU7opposite of inside the house, adj., compound
201RO4Disorderly retreat, or decisive defeat
191RO5Circular, adj.
171RO6Plump (Saint Nick might be called this)
181RO7Circular, domed hall (US Capitol, e.g.), pangram
231RU4Smallest of the litter
221RU6Slight error in rotating tool, compound
211RU9Evasive treatment (“they gave me the …”), compound (lit., jog in a circle)
251TA4Not slack, as a rope, adj.
241TA5Provoke with words
261TO4Take a guided one of these in a foreign city (on a … bus?) adj/noun/verb
271TO4Promote, or offer horse racing tips
281TR5Common game fish (rainbow …, e.g.)
291TR6School-skipper
301TU4Chicken of the sea (Ahi …)
321TU4Change direction , verb (use your … signal when driving!)
361TU4Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond
351TU5Private instructor
311TU6Flat, treeless Arctic region with frozen soil, or Toyota pickup model
341TU7Number of people who show up at an event (we had a great … last night for our poetry reading), compound
331TU10Unexpected change, amount of time needed to complete a task, or hwy. pullout for changing direction; compound pangram
371UD4Japanese noodles
71UN4Perform an action, achieve or complete something; hairstyle (American slang); social event (British slang)
381UN4Archaic preposition (Handel’s Messiah “For … us a child is born”)

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.