- Letters: G/ABLNOT
- Words: 46
- Points: 193
- 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 | AG | 4 | Very excited to hear or see something, adj. |
| 2 | AL | 4,5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Down or next to (… the road), during (… the way), or with (brought …), preposition or adv. |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Clock with hands; not digital; adj. |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Sound of a collision, noun (“The Big … Theory”) |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Online journal, noun/verb |
| 1 | BO | 7 | Large smoked, seasoned North American sausage |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Water pipe for smoking weed, or sound of a large bell |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Paired small drum held between the knees |
| 1 | BO | 8 | Far-right anti-government extremist movement & militia (… bois), starts with ghost scare word |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 8 | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 1 | GA | 7 | Brave, heroic |
| 1 | GA | 6 | 128 liquid oz. |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Slang for a clumsy or oafish person (“You big …”) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain …"), noun/verb |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Be smug in your success or your opponent’s misfortune, verb |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Semi-liquid lump, as in cheese |
| 1 | GL | 6 | Worldwide, adj., as in “… warming” |
| 1 | GL | 7 | Of a sound produced by the opening between the vocal folds; a … stop is the sound of the T in “cat,” e.g.; adj. |
| 1 | GN | 4 | Tiny flying insect |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Objective, or sport target or point |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Alt milk source (nannies, billies, & kids) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Orchestra chime or dinner bell |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Intend to do, slang contraction |
| 1 | GO | 6 | Large number (10¹⁰⁰), NOT a web search site |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Ruffian |
| 1 | GO | 5 | Have to do so, slang contraction (I’ve … run) |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Inlet separated by a reef; “Blue…” film with Brooke Shields |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Company graphic symbol; Target’s is a red bullseye ◎ |
| 1 | LO | 4 | “Short” antonym, adj.; or yearn (for) |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Tropical Asian fruit similar to lychee |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Large oared vessel carried by a sailing ship |
| 2 | NO | 7,9 | 9–sided shape |
| 1 | OB | 6 | Having an stretched-out rectangular or oval shape; ends in list word |
| 1 | OO | 6 | Dark Chinese tea (black dragon) |
| 1 | TA | 8 | Someone who persistently and often annoyingly follows the lead of another |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 1 | TA | 5 | South American ballroom dance with abrupt pauses, noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 8 | Long, narrow sled for coasting downhill |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Wrap worn in ancient Rome (… party) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Chinese mafia, or BBQ grabber if plural (or used as a 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