- Letters: A/ILNOTZ
- Words: 53
- Points: 320
- Pangrams: 4
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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 | AI | 5 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Ceremonially smear someone with oil, or designate as a successor |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife nickname |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | AN | 10 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 1 | AT | 6 | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana), noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 1 | AT | 6 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 2 | IN | 7,14 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 1 | IN | 10 | Cause to begin, or admit into a secret society; verb; or novice, noun |
| 1 | IN | 10 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | IO | 10 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | IO | 4 | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Hawaiian island or porch |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Sheep (wool) oil, used as skin moisturizer |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Put something down |
| 1 | LI | 11 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 1 | LL | 5 | South American grassy plain |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Borrowed $, noun/verb |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | NA | 5 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 3 | NA | 6,8,15 | Country, or temperance activist Carrie |
| 1 | NO | 8 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | NO | 8 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 1 | TA | 5 | A bird of prey's claw |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 1 | TA | 13 | Excite someone's senses or desires |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
| 1 | TI | 11 | Stimulate or excite, especially in a sexual way |
| 1 | TO | 5 | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 1 | ZI | 6 | Sunflower within the daisy family (what other flower starts with Z?) |
| 1 | ZO | 5 | An area with a particular purpose, noun; divide an area into parts with designated purposes, verb (residential …) |
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