Bee Roots for 2024-09-02

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: C/DEIJNO
  • Words: 51
  • Points: 279
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: Etsy

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, ...)
2CE4,5Give up (power or territory)
2CO7,8Give up (power or territory)
1CO5Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium
2CO6,8Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb
2CO4,5Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it
1CO7Addictive pain-killer
1CO5Sequence of 3 nucleotides in DNA
1CO4♀ student, or mixed ♂ & ♀ school, slang abbr.
2CO4,6Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb
3CO8,9,11Occur at the same time (… with)
1CO6Swindle, verb; someone serving a prison sentence (noun, slang)
1CO5Self-owned apartment with an HOA, slang abbr.
2CO7,8Accept or allow misbehavior to continue (“We don’t … this behavior”)
3CO4,5,5Ice cream holder shape
1CO5Soft murmur made by a dove or pigeon, noun/verb
2CO7,9Link, connect (… in holy matrimony)
2DE6,7Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it
2DE6,7Make up one’s mind
1DE4Chrysler Bldg. style (Art …)
1DE7Killing of a god, noun
2DE5,6Frozen water
2DI4,5Spotted cubes you roll, noun; or chop into cubes, verb
1EC7“Killing” of the environment
2EN6,7Write a computer program, or cipher a message to hide it
1IC4Frozen water
2IC4,6Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.), adverb form is a pangram
1IN9Statistical frequency or occurrence of something bad (disease, crime, e.g.), noun
1IN9Guiltless
1IO5Atom or molecule with a net electric charge
1NE6Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr.
1NI4Pleasant in manner; or city in SE France
1NI5Your sibling’s daughter
1NO5Literary word meaning “for the [time being]”
1ON4A single time (they deliver … a week)

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