- Letters: T/ABLORY
- Words: 69
- Points: 297
- Pangrams: 1
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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 | AB | 5 | Head monk, perhaps at Downton |
| 1 | AB | 5 | Call off (a mission or takeoff, e.g.) |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Apportion $ or other resource (time, e.g.) |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, especially for making sacrifices |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Sax smaller than a tenor, or voice higher than one |
| 2 | AO | 5,6 | Main blood pipe from heart |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Creative activity: painting, music, literature, dance, etc |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Coral island (Bikini, e.g.) |
| 1 | AT | 7 | Slang 3–word contraction: exclamation of encouragement or congratulations; ends in young ♂ |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Flower oil for perfume |
| 1 | BA | 6 | What you mark to vote |
| 1 | BA | 5 | What you use to hit the ball in games such as baseball or cricket; flying mammal |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Young ♂ who tends the Yankees’ equipment, esp. sticks; compound |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Make a sound like a sheep, goat, or calf; slang |
| 1 | BL | 5 | Make or become swollen with fluid or gas, esp. stomach |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Stain (on your record), noun; or dry using absorbent material (forehead dampness), verb |
| 1 | BL | 6 | Slang for drunk |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Small ship, as in “tug-” |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Runner Usain, or what you screw into a nut |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Stolen goods (pirate or war …), or slang for ass (shake your …) |
| 2 | BR | 4,6 | Badly behaved child; or a type of sausage (…wurst) |
| 1 | LA | 10 | Place where a chemist might work, pangram |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 1 | LO | 7 | Faithful, devoted |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Grain that is Quaker's specialty |
| 2 | OR | 6,7 | Make a speech |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Sewer-dwelling rodent |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Machine gun sound |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Rapid succession of short, sharp knocking sounds, noun/verb; or make someone nervous, worried, or irritated |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Machine resembling a human |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Phone with dial, adj., or int’l service org (… Club) |
| 2 | RO | 7,8 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Device or blade that spins |
| 1 | RO | 7 | Prince, princess, king, or queen, adj./noun (“… flush” in poker) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Striped cat with a distinctive M on its forehead |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Indian small drum pair; NOT dining room furniture |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Forbidden, cultural no-nos |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Small drum used to accompany a pipe or fife played by the same person |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Dresser with a wardrobe on top, or 24 oz. beer can (more than average height + young ♂) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Dark, thick, flammable liquid distilled from wood or coal |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Asian veg that sounds like fortunetelling cards |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Fortunetelling cards |
| 2 | TA | 4,6 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 1 | TO | 7 | A strip of icons on a computer display providing quick access to certain functions, compound |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Bull, Spanish |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 2 | TO | 5,7 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Use it to carry drinks |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Monster who lives under a bridge, or online forum troublemaker |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Helen of “The Iliad” home, or oz. for gold & gems |
| 1 | TY | 4 | Newbie, from Latin “recruit” |
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