Bee Roots for 2024-09-03

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: T/ABINRV
  • Words: 33
  • Points: 175
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: Wikipedia (ChickenGrass - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

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, ...)
1AN4Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife nickname
1AR6Complete & utter (nonsense), archaic adj.
1AT5Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart
1AT6Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana), noun form is a pangram
1AT5Flower oil for perfume
1AV6Video game stand-in, or film set on Pandora
1BA4(Put a) worm on a fishing hook; verb/noun
1BR4Badly behaved child; or a type of sausage (…wurst)
1IN9Differ in size, amount, degree, or nature (Your results may …), verb
1IR8Make someone annoyed, impatient, or angry; or cause inflammation
1NA6Swimming or floating adj. from Latin
1RA6Gregarious, plant-eating mammal with long ears, long hind legs, and a short tail (famous ones include Bugs and Roger)
1RA5Indian yogurt veg dip
1RA4Speak or shout wildly & at length
1RA7Machine gun sound
1RA6Palm fiber for furniture
1RI6What a frog says (I'm not kidding - it's really a Spelling Bee word)
1TA5Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb
1TA6Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun
1TA7Onomatopoetic name for war trumpet
1TA6Hindu/Buddhist mystical text, involving sex
1TA4Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj.
1TA6Plaid patterned Scottish cloth
1TA6Fish sauce, or tooth buildup
1TI5Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown
1TI5Shin bone
1TI4Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb
1TI5Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig
1TR5Choo-choo, or prep for athletic event
1TR5Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.)
1TR6Insignificant facts (there are often contests), noun + adj.
1VA7Differ in size, amount, degree, or nature (Your results may …), verb
1VI7Move rhythmically and steadily to and fro, oscillate, adj. form is a pangram

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