Bee Roots for 2023-02-04

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: I/ACEHMT
  • Words: 46
  • Points: 217
  • Pangrams: 3
Source: pennington.com

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1AC6African or Australian wattle tree
1AC4Trendy smoothie berry
1AC6Vinegar adj., or acid it contains
1AT5Unfinished room below roof; garret
1CA5Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers
1CA4♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr.
1CH4Spiced Indian tea (… latte)
1CH4Faddish “pet” mint plant
1CH4Fashionable
1CH5Girl, Spanish
1CH6Pretentious style (or almost 2x fashionable)
1CH5Percussion instrument or its sound (I find a tinkling wind … to be annoying), noun
1CH4IOU note, Navy memo
1CH8Idle small talk; slang compound noun or verb that starts with a list word
1CI4Quote as evidence
1EM8Cause to lose flesh so as to become very thin
1EM6Med that induces vomiting
1EM4Give off (radiation, signals)
1ET5A set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct
1HE6Full of incessant or frantic activity
1HE7Blood-related, medical pangram
1HE8Abundant iron oxide mineral & primary iron ore
1HI5“Psycho” director Alfred nickname, or slang for thumb a ride, verb; or device on a vehicle that allows it to attach a trailer, noun
1IM4Prayer leader at mosque
1IM7Copy someone’s speech or mannerisms
1IT4What you scratch (an …)
1IT4One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register
1MA8Hawaiian double name for the dolphinfish or dorado
1MA4Permanently injure
1MA10Science of numbers, their operations, relations, and abstractions, pangram (plural form is much more common)
1MI4Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets
1MI43 blind rodents in rhyme
1MI4Silent performer
1MI7Imitative behavior, adj.
1MI5Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun
1MI4Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today)
1MI4Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney
1TA5Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj.
1TA6Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …)
1TA6Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳)
1TE7Britspeak for the early afternoon hour when you serve a steeped beverage, compound (NOT a golf reservation)
1TE6Last word in name of Cambridge school M.I.T., abbr.
1TH8Subject of a talk, or an idea that recurs in a work of art, noun (and rarely, verb - gerund is a pangram)
1TI4What clocks measure & display
1TI5Give 10% of your income to the Church
1TI7Small songbirds; plural; starts with “breast” slang & ends in “3 blind” rodent

About this site

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.

A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.

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