- Letters: V/ACDEIT
- Words: 50
- Points: 332
- Pangrams: 5
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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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | AC | 6,8,9 | Doing things energetically or frequently; opposite of inert |
| 1 | AD | 9 | Someone who’s hooked on drugs |
| 1 | AD | 8 | Math operation with plus (+) symbol, or new rooms that expand a house |
| 1 | AD | 6 | Guidance or recommendations about what to do in the future |
| 2 | AV | 6,7 | Pilot or fly in a plane, verb (from Latin for bird) |
| 1 | AV | 4 | Eager for or enthusisatic about (… reader) |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Spanish sparkling wine, or vein to heart (vena …) |
| 2 | CA | 4,5 | Large underground chamber, where stalactites and stalagmites form and bats live, noun; or give in (slang) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Warning; … emptor is Latin for “buyer beware,” noun |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Asian & African “cat” used for perfume |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Popular Honda model; or municipal (adj.) |
| 1 | DA | 6 | In languages with noun declension (German for example), a case indicating an indirect object or recipient |
| 2 | DE | 10,11 | Doing things energetically or frequently; opposite of inert |
| 2 | DE | 7,8 | Cause someone to believe something that is not true; give a false impression, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | DE | 10 | Devote time and effort to a particular purpose; or mark an artistic work as being in someone's honor |
| 1 | DE | 9 | Someone who solves crimes: fictional ones include Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Columbo |
| 2 | DE | 7,8 | Depart from the norm, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | DE | 6 | Something made for a purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Famous female opera singer; self-important person who is temperamental and difficult to please |
| 2 | DI | 4,5 | Jump headfirst into water |
| 2 | DI | 6,7 | Separate into parts, or ÷ arithmetic operation |
| 1 | DI | 7 | Break into parts for sharing (… up the proceeds) |
| 2 | EA | 4,5 | Roof overhang, NOT Adam’s mate |
| 2 | EV | 5,6 | Escape or avoid, especially by cleverness or trickery |
| 3 | EV | 5,7,7 | Kick out of an apartment |
| 1 | IV | 5 | Climbing plant with shiny, dark green five-pointed leaves (… League) |
| 2 | TI | 8,9 | Spiff up (clothing or appearance), obscure verb |
| 2 | VA | 6,7 | Leave a place that was previously occupied (… the premises immediately!), or legal term for cancel (contract, judgment, or charge); verb |
| 1 | VE | 6 | Person with combat experience, noun; check credentials, verb |
| 1 | VI | 4 | Bad habit, or “Miami …” police show |
| 1 | VI | 4 | Compete eagerly |
| 2 | VI | 7,8 | Formal, obscure verb meaning spoil or impair; or legal term meaning destroy or annul the force & effect of an act or instrument; (also Star Wars Sith Emperor Tenebrae) |
| 1 | VI | 6 | Music played in a lively and brisk manner |
| 1 | VI | 5 | Producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind (a … memory); or, of a color, intensely deep or bright |
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