Bee Roots for 2024-08-02

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
  • Letters: H/ACEKNY
  • Words: 25
  • Points: 91
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: Mythology Characters and Creatures

Table content

  • with first two letters of answer and length
answers coveredanswer's first two lettersanswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
2AC4,4Muscle, heart, tooth, or tummy dull pain
1AN4Egyptian symbol for “life”
1CA5Hidden stockpile, or computer temp memory storage to speed access
2CH6,6Possibility (there’s a small …) or serendipity (they met by …), noun; or take a risk, verb
1CH5Bank draft, noun; or verify, verb
2CH5,6Side of your face, noun; or sass (British)
1EA4Every one, pronoun; or apiece, adv.
1EN7Intensify, increase, or improve (do this to your driver’s license so it meets new TSA rules), noun form is a pangram
1HA4Cut with rough or heavy blows; use a computer to gain unauthorized access, verb/noun
1HA7Horse-drawn carriage for hire, pangram
1HA4Maori ceremonial dance
1HA4Large-headed elongated fish with long jaws and strong teeth
1HA4Coil of rope, or baseball great Aaron
1HA5Handkerchief, informal
1HE4Mild cuss (“… of a job, Brownie!”), euphemism for Satan’s domain
1HE5Consequently, or in the future (…forth)
1HE5Hair or temp. tattoo dye
1HY5Scavenging, laughing wild dog
1KH4Title given to Asian rulers (Genghis...)
1YE4Informal affirmative reply
2YE4,5Tastes awful, exclamation, 2 spellings

About this site

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