- Letters: A/DLMNTY
- Words: 49
- Points: 200
- Pangrams: 1
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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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| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | AD | 7,9 | Stage name of “Goody Two Shoes” singer; or refusing to change your mind, adj. (adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | AD | 5 | ♂ who writes sales pitches, compound |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict |
| 1 | AM | 4 | Abbr. for … nitrite "poppers" you sniff at a rave; or C₅H₁₁ on its own |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Uptight, or butt-related; adj. |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body |
| 1 | DA | 5 | Papa (… long legs, sugar …) |
| 1 | DA | 5 | Move slowly, or have casual sex with |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Condemn to Hell, verb; or exclamation of frustration |
| 1 | DA | 5 | Fop, or foppish (“Yankee Doodle …” Cagney film) |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Facts & stats, computer info, or Star Trek Next Gen android |
| 1 | DY | 4 | Something that consists of 2 parts, from Greek (Kylo Ren & Rey, e.g.) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | ♀ counterpart of gentleman ("… & the Tramp") |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Tibetan Buddhist monk (Dalai …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Alight on the ground, verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 8 | ♀ who owns your apartment (compound) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Non-ordained or amateur ♂ (“In …’s terms”) |
| 1 | LL | 5 | S Am camel |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Angry; crazy |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Term of respect for a ♀, or one who runs a brothel; palindrome |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Crazy ♂, compound (if plural, Don Draper’s retro TV show) |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Illness |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Shopping center with many stores under one roof |
| 2 | MA | 4,5 | Convert grain for brewing (…–ed milk), noun/verb |
| 2 | MA | 4,5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Vertebrate class that has hair, milk, & live birth |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Adult ♂ |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Exodus food from the sky |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Ray (fish) |
| 1 | MA | 4 | More than a few (… people are saying) |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Distress call, compound |
| 1 | MY | 4 | Talking starling that’s often a pet |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Nothing, Spanish |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | NA | 5 | ♀ goat, or nursemaid |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Well dressed, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. 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