- Letters: I/CFLNOT
- Words: 55
- Points: 251
- 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 | CL | 5 | Steep rock face (white ones of Dover) |
| 1 | CL | 6 | Medical facility (health …) |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Burial box |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Style someone’s hair, verb/noun |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Wind up spirally, verb/noun (Hamlet’s “mortal …”) |
| 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Baby or horse upset tummy |
| 1 | CO | 7 | : (punctuation mark), or intestine |
| 1 | CO | 10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 1 | CO | 6 | Duck or other meat cooked & preserved in its own fat, French |
| 1 | CO | 8 | Serious disagreement or argument, noun/verb |
| 1 | CO | 9 | Debutante ball |
| 1 | FI | 7 | Book with made-up stories |
| 1 | FI | 4 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 1 | FI | 6 | “Done” in Italian |
| 1 | FL | 5 | Michigan city with tainted water, or stone that makes sparks |
| 1 | FL | 4 | Move swiftly & lightly, as a bird, e.g. (… about) |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Center of interest or activity, noun; adjust a camera to get a clear image, verb |
| 1 | FO | 4 | Thin aluminum sheet for wrapping leftovers, noun; or thwart, verb (Curses! …ed again) |
| 1 | FO | 5 | B-vitamin that treats anemia (… acid) |
| 1 | FO | 5 | A book (A Shakespeare first … is quite valuable), a page in a book, or a book size; from Latin for “leaf” |
| 2 | IC | 4,6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Add material until the container or hole is at capacity |
| 2 | IN | 7,10 | Cause something unpleasant to be suffered by someone (injuries, damage) |
| 1 | IN | 4 | Collection of facts and tips, abbr. |
| 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Raise up (fork…), not Uber competitor |
| 1 | LI | 7 | The moment a rocket leaves the ground, compound |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 1 | LO | 4 | A particular point or place |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Moisturizing or suntan cream |
| 1 | NO | 10 | Book with made-up stories |
| 1 | NO | 9 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 1 | OC | 9 | 1 followed 27 zeroes; Latin 8 prefix |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Petty quarrel, or computer image format |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 1 | TI | 7 | Thin metal sheet for wrapping leftovers or making hats for conspiracy theorists, compound |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
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