Bee Roots

Bee Roots for 2022-11-12

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: W/AFILOR

Words: 21

Points: 87

Pangrams: 1

Source: racinezoo.org

Table content

with first two letters of answer and length

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 AI 7 Movement of what you breathe around or through something, compound

2 1 AL 5 Permit, verb

3 1 AR 5 What you shoot with a bow

4 1 FA 6 Crop field left dormant, adj.

5 1 FA 6 A litter of pigs

6 1 FL 4 Imperfection

7 1 FL 4 Movement of water in a current

10 1 FO 4 Domestic game birds, not an unfair act in soccer

8 1 FO 6 Come after or behind (an event or person), verb + gerund (2 words)

9 1 FO 8 A great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter; or showy frills added unnecessarily

11 1 WA 4 Homeless, neglected, or abandoned person, esp. a child; Dickens novels often feature them (street …)

12 1 WA 4 Loud, unhappy sound of babies & banshees, NOT a humpback

13 1 WA 4 Barrier between rooms, or Pink Floyd album ("The …")

15 1 WA 6 Roll around in mud, or indulge "in" emotion (misery, self-pity)

16 1 WA 7 Brave or experienced soldier; or various standing yoga positions

14 1 WA 8 Australian marsupial, smaller than kangaroo, bigger than wallaby (arguably a portmanteau)

17 1 WI 4 Last … & testament, or actor Ferrell

18 1 WI 6 “Weeping” tree, or 1988 Val Kilmer fantasy film

19 1 WO 4 Lobo in Spanish

20 1 WO 4 What a dog says

21 1 WO 4 Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj.

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	AI	7	Movement of what you breathe around or through something, compound
2	1	AL	5	Permit, verb
3	1	AR	5	What you shoot with a bow
4	1	FA	6	Crop field left dormant, adj.
5	1	FA	6	A litter of pigs
6	1	FL	4	Imperfection
7	1	FL	4	Movement of water in a current
10	1	FO	4	Domestic game birds, not an unfair act in soccer
8	1	FO	6	Come after or behind (an event or person), verb + gerund (2 words)
9	1	FO	8	A great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter; or showy frills added unnecessarily
11	1	WA	4	Homeless, neglected, or abandoned person, esp. a child; Dickens novels often feature them (street …)
12	1	WA	4	Loud, unhappy sound of babies & banshees, NOT a humpback
13	1	WA	4	Barrier between rooms, or Pink Floyd album ("The …")
15	1	WA	6	Roll around in mud, or indulge "in" emotion (misery, self-pity)
16	1	WA	7	Brave or experienced soldier; or various standing yoga positions
14	1	WA	8	Australian marsupial, smaller than kangaroo, bigger than wallaby (arguably a portmanteau)
17	1	WI	4	Last … & testament, or actor Ferrell
18	1	WI	6	“Weeping” tree, or 1988 Val Kilmer fantasy film
19	1	WO	4	Lobo in Spanish
20	1	WO	4	What a dog says
21	1	WO	4	Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj.

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.