- Letters: B/AEILNP
- Words: 55
- Points: 276
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Criminal’s excuse |
| 1 | AP | 10 | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Infant, slugger Ruth, or pig film |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Genesis “Tower of …,” noun |
| 2 | BA | 4,6 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Parcel of hay, or actor Christian |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Whale straining “teeth” |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Unoriginal, dull |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Cause of annoyance, or DC Comics villain (he’s the … of my existence) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Legume (lima …), noun; or hit on the head, verb |
| 1 | BE | 8 | A pitch aimed at a batter’s head, compound |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Head-hugging brimless cap with a button at the crown (propeller optional), NOT a legume |
| 1 | BE | 7 | Straight, direct course between 2 points, compound (think this puzzle’s name) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Car horn sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Be in a horizontal resting position, or say something false |
| 1 | BI | 5 | Holy book (starts with Genesis) |
| 2 | BI | 7,8 | Period of 2 years, Latin plural |
| 1 | BI | 4 | Liver secretion, or anger |
| 2 | BI | 4,8 | Invoice, or actor Murray, noun/verb |
| 1 | BI | 8 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 1 | BI | 7 | Flat geometric surface; or short for flying vehicle |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Cover a profanity with a sound (… out) |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Russian pancake |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Unexpected minor deviation, such as a (radar) screen spot |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 1 | IN | 11 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Tag or sticky paper with info (Avery mailing …) |
| 2 | LA | 5,6 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Easily and frequently altered; unstable |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Responsible by law/legally answerable; likely to do something (he's ... to get upset) |
| 2 | LI | 5,7 | Printed slander, noun |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 1 | PA | 8 | So intense (a feeling or atmosphere) as to seem almost physical (a … sense of loss), or can be felt by touch |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Small rock (… Beach golf course near Monterey, CA) |
| 1 | PE | 8 | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Game that involves small metal balls, a sloping table, and flippers; compound |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Commoner, slang insult, from Latin |
| 2 | PL | 5,8 | Military academy cadet, slang |
| 1 | PL | 7 | Can be bent or influenced easily, adj. |
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