Bee Roots for 2022-10-23

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: P/AFILNU
  • Words: 30
  • Points: 111
  • Pangrams: 1
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, ...)
11AP5Bee-related adj.
21AP6Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me)
31FI6Obscure noun for a stimulant; starts with above; homophone of the late Queen Elizabeth’s late husband Prince …
41FL4What Old Glory does in the breeze, or what birds do to their wings to take off; verb
51FL4Turn over pancakes to cook the bottoms, verb; or comedian …Wilson
61PA4Bucket, NOT white-faced
71PA4Sensation from an injury, noun/verb
91PA4Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer"
101PA4Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term
121PA4Father, slang
131PA5Pontiff adj.
81PA6Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun
111PA6Toasted Italian sandwich
71PA7Sensation from an injury, noun/verb
141PA7Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin)
161PI4Tablet of medicine
151PI5Rice cooked in broth with spice & veg or meat
181PI5Poster of a sex symbol ("model" or "girl"), or how you tack it to the wall
191PI6Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety
211PL4Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb
201PL5Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj.
221PU4Short explosive burst of breath or wind, noun; or expand (...up or out), verb
241PU4Hungarian herding dog with dreadlocks
251PU4Tug on, verb
261PU4Soft, wet, shapeless mass (“… Fiction” film), or floating bits of fruit in orange juice
271PU4Immature insect stage
271PU5Immature insect stage
281PU5Student, or black dot at center of eye
231PU6Small auk with a colorful beak
171UN5Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, 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.