- Letters: B/DEGLNO
- Words: 67
- Points: 327
- Pangrams: 3
|
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
| |
|
Table content
|
| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BE | 6 | Furniture you sleep on, noun/verb |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Plead |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Archaic “shoo!”; compound exclamation; ends in list word |
| 2 | BE | 4,6 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 2 | BE | 6,8 | Be part of a group; or be in an exclusive relationship with someone; or (said of a thing) be owned by someone |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Shape into a curve, or Oregon city |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Lose blood from your body |
| 2 | BL | 5,7 | Mix together, verb/noun |
| 2 | BL | 4,7 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 2 | BL | 4,7 | Online journal, noun/verb |
| 2 | BL | 5,6 | Having yellow hair, adj./noun |
| 2 | BL | 5,7 | What hearts pump, noun/adj. |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 2 | BO | 6,7 | Type of “head” doll that nods when moved |
| 2 | BO | 4,5 | Be an omen of a particular outcome |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Wet muddy ground too soft to support something heavy; become stuck in such a place, verb (negotiations …ed down) |
| 2 | BO | 6,7 | Cause someone to be astonished or overwhelmed |
| 2 | BO | 4,6 | 𝐔𝐧𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐚𝐝𝐣. |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Western string tie |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 2 | BO | 4,6 | Agent 007, Brit spy James |
| 2 | BO | 4,5 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 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 | 6 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Large amount of money, usually gotten illegally; rhymes with absent-minded drawing |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 2 | BO | 10,11 | Wasteful or pointless activity that gives the appearance of having value, noun/verb |
| 2 | DE | 6,7 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 1 | EB | 5 | Recede, especially in reference to the tide |
| 1 | EB | 4 | Black, poetic; and/or black wood (“… & Ivory”) |
| 2 | EN | 7,8 | Aristocrat, aristocratic, or righteous, NOT a Peace Prize from Oslo |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Semi-liquid lump, as in cheese |
| 1 | GL | 5 | The whole earth, or a model of it, usually on a stand that allows it to spin |
| 2 | GO | 6,7 | Eat quickly and noisily; or sound that turkeys make |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Throw or hit a ball high in the air, verb/noun |
| 2 | LO | 4,5 | Brain section, or part of ear most commonly pierced |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 1 | NO | 5 | Aristocrat, aristocratic, or righteous, NOT a Peace Prize from Oslo |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 1 | OB | 6 | Having an stretched-out rectangular or oval shape; ends in list word |
| 1 | OB | 4 | Double reed orchestra-tuning instrument |
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