- Letters: L/DIORWY
- Words: 48
- Points: 198
- 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 | DI | 6 | Worthless amount (… squat), or guitarist Bo |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Phallus-shaped sex toy |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Pickle spice |
| 1 | DI | 5 | Excellent example (that was a … of a game) |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Ornamental lace mat |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Move on a mobile platform, for example a movie camera |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Literary term for a a state of great sorrow or distress (Spanish for pain), noun |
| 1 | DO | 7 | Frumpy, adj. |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Power tool with bits for making holes, or practice for an emergency (fire …); noun |
| 2 | DR | 5,6 | Curious or unusual in a way that provokes amusement, adj. |
| 2 | DR | 5,6 | Spit leaking out of your mouth, noun/verb |
| 1 | DR | 5 | Not wet |
| 1 | ID | 4 | Not doing anything; or, said of an engine, running but in gear |
| 1 | ID | 4 | Punk rocker Billy; “American …” TV singing contest; or public figure you worship (…-ize) |
| 2 | ID | 4,5 | Extremely happy scene or poem |
| 1 | IL | 4 | not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Monet floral subject (water …) |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 3 | LO | 4,5,6 | ♂ version of “Lady” in nobility, or term for God; or, exclamation expressing surprise or worry |
| 1 | LO | 5 | “Truck” in Britspeak |
| 1 | LO | 5 | Opposite of high; sound made by cattle |
| 1 | OD | 5 | Opposite of even (math); unusual |
| 1 | OI | 4 | Viscous liquid used for lubrication, noun/verb; (food) a fat that's liquid at room temperature |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | RI | 4 | Small stream |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Stir up mud or trouble (…ed the waters) |
| 1 | RO | 4 | What you do to dice, verb; or Tootsie candy & small bread format, noun |
| 1 | RO | 7 | Unruly (obnoxious & drunk sports fans, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
| 2 | WI | 4,6 | Feral, adj. (… animals); not tame |
| 1 | WI | 8 | Forest unaltered or unfrequented by humans, compound (also a Cape May, NJ resort city) |
| 1 | WI | 4 | Last … & testament, or actor Ferrell |
| 2 | WI | 6,7 | “Weeping” tree, or 1988 Val Kilmer fantasy film |
| 1 | WI | 4 | Shrewd & deceitful, crafty, (a … negotiator) |
| 2 | WO | 4,6 | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj. |
| 1 | WO | 7 | Sentence component, letter combo with meaning, term I usually use here in place of “term", concept with which Spelling Bee players are obsessed |
| 2 | WO | 5,7 | The earth, together with all its countries, peoples, & natural features (… Bank or … Health Org. or … War N or … Champion) |
| 1 | WR | 5 | Using humor, especially mocking humor, without much facial expression; sardonic (… smile) |
| 1 | YO | 4 | A loud wailing cry, esp. one of pain or distress, noun or 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