- Letters: P/CEMNOT
- Words: 42
- Points: 203
- Pangrams: 5
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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 | CO | 4 | Provide for free (entry ticket, hotel room, drinks), slang abbr. |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Take part in a contest, strive to win |
| 2 | CO | 9,10 | Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully |
| 1 | CO | 9 | Part of a larger whole, especially a part of a machine or vehicle |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Fruit preserved or cooked in syrup |
| 1 | CO | 7 | Abstract or general idea, noun |
| 1 | CO | 8 | The feeling that someone or something is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Chicken pen, noun; or confine in a small space, verb (…ed up) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Deal effectively with something difficult |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Fencing sword |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Sulk, brood; verb |
| 1 | MO | 6 | Small endearingly sweet child |
| 1 | NO | 10 | Take part in a contest, strive to win |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Slang negation |
| 1 | OP | 4 | Pull on a door handle to gain admittance, verb/adj. |
| 1 | OP | 8 | Adversary, rival, game competitor; noun |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Backside of a hammer |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | PE | 5 | 1/100 of a £, or former VP & Indiana Gov |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Archaic for writer; compound made from “ink stick” & ♂ |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Archaic for “repressed,” now used as …-up frustration, adj. |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Low-ranking worker, drudge |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Verse that usually rhymes, from Frost et al. |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Author of verse |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Botany term for apple or pear (think French) |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Ceremonial public display (Elgar’s “… & Circumstance March” at graduations) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Cheerleader accessory |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Unleavened cornbread, often Southern or Native American |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Temp floating bridge; or cylinder full of air, two of which keep a type of slow boat afloat |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Francis, Pius, etc. (head of Roman Catholic Church) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | (Historical or British) sweet or pretty child, or voodoo doll |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Strong (…[drinks]—common Jeopardy category); or able to achieve an erection (think IM– prefix) |
| 2 | TE | 5,6 | Native Am conical hut; 2 spellings |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Office worker fill-in, slang abbr. |
| 1 | TE | 5 | Speed at which a passage of music is played; more generally, pace of an activity |
| 1 | TE | 5 | Entice (as a donut to a dieter, e.g.), verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Small grayish slender-bodied shark, or mango tree grove; homophone of grayish-brown color |
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