Bee Roots for 2024-09-21

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: N/ABEJOW
  • Words: 28
  • Points: 79
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: Everyday Health

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, ...)
1AE4Geologic time period, spelled with an æsc; “… Flux” anime
1AN4Soon, poetically
1AN4Opposite of old
1BA6Large monkey with red butt
1BA6Common yellow plantain variety
1BA4Cause of annoyance, or DC Comics villain (he’s the … of my existence)
1BA5What Steve Martin plays on his knee
1BE4Legume (lima …), noun; or hit on the head, verb
1BE4Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”)
1BO6Candy, or 2X “good" in French
1BO4Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely
1BO6Small ape related to chimps
1BO4Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun
1EB4Black, poetic; and/or black wood (“… & Ivory”)
1JA7Mandible (of an ass?), compound pangram
1JE4Dungaree, or tennis legend Billie … King
1NA4Indiaan flaat breaad
1NA5Conspicuously rich person, as in VP Agnew’s “nattering …s of negativism”
1NA4Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog
1NE4Hawaiian goose & state bird
1NE4Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs
1NO4Quantity of zero; “all” antonym
1NO4Beginner, gamer slang
1NO412:00, midday, 🕛
1WA4Decrease (esp. moon), NOT Batman alter ego Bruce
1WA5“Would like to do,” slang contraction
1WA7Person who aspires to another role in life (slang, compound)
1WE4Taper someone off of, esp. mother’s milk

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