- Letters: O/DEIMNZ
- Words: 58
- Points: 258
- 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 | DE | 9 | People considered to be on the fringes of respectable society (from French) |
| 2 | DE | 4,6 | Show off, slang abbr. (a … model impressed investors); or demolish, slang abbrev. |
| 3 | DE | 5,8,9 | Evil spirit or devil |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Flintstones pet, or T. Rex family abbr. |
| 1 | DI | 5 | 1–way semiconductor with 2 terminals |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or stupid person, slang |
| 2 | DO | 4,5 | Rounded vault on a roof |
| 1 | DO | 8 | Sovereign authority over a country or people (Canada was a … from 1867 to 1951) |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Spotted game tile (“bones”) |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Put on (… we now our gay apparel) |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Give to a good cause |
| 1 | DO | 4 | Finished (with a task) |
| 2 | DO | 4,6 | Terrible fate (they fell to their …), or pioneering 1st person shooter game |
| 1 | DO | 6 | Humdinger, lulu, noun (I had a … of a cold, but it wasn't COVID) |
| 2 | DO | 4,5 | Sleep lightly and briefly, snooze |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Twelve of something (cheaper by the …) |
| 1 | ID | 5 | Slang phrase particular to a language (“raining cats & dogs”), noun |
| 1 | IO | 6 | Compound made with element 53 |
| 3 | IO | 6,6,7 | Element 53, stored in thyroid, added to table salt, used to treat cuts |
| 2 | IO | 6,7 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Office note abbr. |
| 1 | ME | 5 | Voice between soprano and alto |
| 1 | MI | 5 | Old stencil duplicator, abbr. (missing –graph suffix) |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Underling, as seen in “Despicable Me” |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Manner in which something happens (… of operation), or fashion (pie à la …) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Device to get a computer online (cable or DSL …) |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Slang for something huge or remarkable, or Italian for “world” (The Ramones' … Bizarro) |
| 1 | MO | 6 | $, cash |
| 1 | MO | 4 | 1–channel sound abbreviation, or glandular fever “kissing disease” abbreviation |
| 1 | MO | 5 | Sound a cow makes |
| 1 | MO | 4 | Emotional state (happy, angry, sad, etc.) |
| 2 | MO | 4,6 | NASA Apollo missions landed on or circled it |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Move your head up and down a little, usually to signal agreement, verb/noun |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Connecting point |
| 1 | NO | 7 | Propose a candidate for election or an honor |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | OD | 5 | Greek or Roman building used for musical performances (smaller than theaters) |
| 1 | OM | 4 | Portent, or Damien’s horror films (“The …”) |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 2 | OO | 4,5 | Slowly trickle or seep out, verb/noun |
| 1 | OZ | 5 | Oxygen compound with formula O3 (the … layer in the atmosphere) |
| 2 | ZO | 4,5 | An area with a particular purpose, noun; divide an area into parts with designated purposes, verb (residential …) |
| 2 | ZO | 4,6 | travel quickly, or change between close-up and long shot, or a popular video conferencing platform |
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