- Letters: G/ACIKMN
- Words: 49
- Points: 297
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC | 5 | Get a top grade on a test |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Another time; once more; adv. |
| 1 | AG | 5 | How old you are, noun; or grow older, verb; or period of history, noun |
| 1 | AI | 6 | Point at a target |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Medical term for severe (chest) pain |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Barred enclosure, or actor Nicolas |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Baked dessert, often with layers and icing; traditional birthday party fare |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Cylindrical metal container, noun; be capable, verb, fire from a job (slang verb) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Walking stick, or striped peppermint Xmas crook |
| 1 | GA | 7 | Choke or retch, verb; or material placed over someone's mouth to prevent them from speaking or crying out, noun/verb |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 2 | GA | 4,7 | Increase the amount or rate of (you always … a few pounds on a cruise) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Competitive form of play (poker, soccer, Scrabble, etc.) |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Archaic word for a ♂ street urchin, from French |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Γ, γ (3rd Greek letter), & shortest-length EM radiation (… rays) |
| 2 | GA | 4,7 | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain …"), noun/verb |
| 1 | GI | 7 | Live performance by or engagement for a musician or group, especially playing pop or jazz; noun/verb |
| 1 | GI | 7 | Trick intended to attract attention |
| 1 | GI | 7 | Clear alcoholic spirit flavored with juniper berries; or card game |
| 1 | IC | 5 | Frozen water |
| 1 | IM | 7 | Picture or other representation of a person or thing (mirror … is that thing reversed), or public perception of a celebrity or company (polish their…), noun |
| 1 | IM | 9 | Form a mental picture or concept; or John Lennon's 1971 album and title song |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Colored fluid used for writing, drawing, noun; to sign something, usually a contract (he …ed a new deal) |
| 1 | IN | 6 | A baseball game is divided into 9 of these |
| 1 | KI | 7 | Strike with foot, verb/noun |
| 2 | KI | 4,7 | ♂ monarch |
| 1 | KI | 7 | “Lola” band, offbeat sex, or sharp twist |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Self-defense pepper spray, staff, or spice from a nutmeg |
| 1 | MA | 4 | The 3 biblical wise ♂, Latin plural |
| 2 | MA | 5,8 | Card tricks & illusions, noun/adj. (… wand) |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Hot fluid below Earth’s crust; lava before it’s erupted |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Permanently injure |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Assemble (Please … dinner tonight; I’m too tired) or force (Oh yeah? … me!), verb |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Adult ♂ |
| 1 | MA | 8 | Administer (she got promoted to …ment) |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Japanese graphic novels |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Microphone, slang noun/verb |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Silent performer |
| 1 | MI | 9 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 1 | MI | 7 | Chop finely |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Where you dig for ore, or anti-ship bomb |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Annoy or irritate with persistent fault-finding or continuous urging |
| 1 | NA | 6 | What you’re called (Kevin or Susan, e.g.) |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Small cut from shaving, or Santa name (Old Saint …), noun/verb |
| 1 | NI | 10 | Something unofficial that people like to call you, pangram noun/verb |
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