- Letters: P/FGILNO
- Words: 54
- Points: 298
- 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 | FI | 6 | Gesture made by the sudden forcible straightening of a finger curled up against the thumb; homophone of the late Queen Elizabeth’s late husband Prince … |
| 2 | FL | 4,8 | Turn over pancakes to cook the bottoms, verb; or comedian … Wilson |
| 2 | FL | 8,12 | Light sandal, typically of plastic or rubber, with a thong between the big and second toe, noun; or repeatedly change positions on some issue, verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 2 | FL | 4,8 | A failure (the film was a total …), or ungainly pool dive (belly …), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 3 | GL | 4,5,8 | Sticky and amorphous substance, typically something unpleasant (2 spellings) |
| 1 | GO | 4 | Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, or unpleasant messy gel |
| 1 | LI | 7 | Body part with which you kiss |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Fat-sucking procedure, abbr. |
| 1 | LO | 8 | Hard candy on a stick |
| 2 | LO | 6,9 | Move in an ungainly way in a series of clumsy paces or bounds |
| 2 | LO | 4,7 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 7 | Material cut away from a tree, noun/verb |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Run like a wolf, with bounding strides |
| 1 | NI | 7 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 1 | OP | 7 | Express a belief or judgement |
| 1 | OP | 7 | Belief or judgment (In my humble …) |
| 1 | PI | 8 | Of little worth or importance, adj. (looks like a gerund but isn't) |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Animal that is the source of bacon, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Heap, stack (dirty laundry, raked leaves, etc.), noun/verb |
| 2 | PI | 4,7 | Tablet of medicine |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Passenger seat behind rider on motorcycle or horse |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end, used especially for securing fabric, noun/verb |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 2 | PI | 4,7 | Query a computer to determine connection speed; or get a sonar hit; or first word of informal name for table tennis |
| 2 | PI | 6,9 | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 1 | PI | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 2 | PL | 4,8 | Sound of Alka–Seltzer before the fizz |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Bouncy “stick”, noun/verb |
| 1 | PO | 6 | What a firefighter slides down |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Disease that put FDR in a wheelchair |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Opinion survey, homophone of above (straw, Gallup, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Croquet on horseback |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Early Atari table tennis game |
| 1 | PO | 4 | Exclamation of suddenness (…—it’s gone!), or Brit slang for a gay ♂ |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Swimming venue |
| 2 | PO | 4,7 | Tire out (I’m …-ed); or defecate, slang verb/noun |
| 1 | PO | 7 | Make a light explosive sound (… the cork, … the question) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Plain-woven fabric, typically a lightweight cotton, with a corded surface |
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