- Letters: A/EGLUVY
- Words: 51
- Points: 218
- 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 | 5 | Tequila plant source |
| 1 | AG | 4 | Old fashioned word for illness involving fever and shivering |
| 3 | AL | 4,5,5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 1 | AL | 6 | Claim without proof |
| 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Narrow passageway between buildings. (… cat, …-oop) |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict, noun/verb |
| 1 | EA | 5 | A bald one is the USA's national bird |
| 1 | EA | 4 | Roof overhang, NOT Adam’s mate |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 1 | GA | 6 | A “herd” of geese |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met …, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Strong wind storm |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Ship or plane kitchen |
| 2 | GA | 4,5 | Measuring dial (fuel …) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Force-feeding through a tube, noun |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Judge's hammer |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Homosexual (used especially of a man); lighthearted and carefree (dated) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Opposite of take |
| 1 | GU | 5 | Tropical fruit |
| 1 | GU | 5 | Soviet labor camp |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Fall behind, verb/noun |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Molten rock from a volcano |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Literary or medical term for washing a body part |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Wash |
| 1 | LA | 8 | Dawdle, slang (ends in “mouth covering” synonym) |
| 1 | LE | 6 | Group of sports teams that compete; or archaic measure of distance, usually about three miles |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Depart, verb |
| 2 | LE | 5,7 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Hawaiian BBQ |
| 1 | LU | 7 | Suitcases and carry-ons |
| 1 | UV | 4 | Pigmented eye layer beneath the white part |
| 2 | UV | 5,6 | It hangs above your throat at the back of your mouth |
| 2 | VA | 5,7 | Uncertain, unclear, approximate (… hints) |
| 1 | VA | 5 | Tenth cranial nerve, supplying the heart, lungs, and upper digestive tract |
| 1 | VA | 4 | Low area of land between mountains (… of Tears) |
| 1 | VA | 6 | Low area of land between hills or mountains, typically with a river or stream flowing through it |
| 1 | VA | 5 | What something’s worth (retail … of a used car) |
| 1 | VA | 5 | Device that controls passage of fluid or air (shut-off …, heart …) |
| 1 | VE | 4 | Calf meat (… Parmesan) |
| 3 | VU | 5,6,6 | ♀ outer genitals |
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