- Letters: O/BHILNT
- Words: 53
- Points: 179
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | BI | 7,9 | 1 followed by 9 zeroes (in US & France); Latin 2 prefix, ordinal form is a pangram |
| 1 | BI | 6 | Vitamin B7 |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Stain (on your record), noun; or dry using absorbent material (forehead dampness), verb |
| 1 | BL | 6 | Slang for drunk |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Sewing machine thread holder |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Hippie chic fashion; anagram of "vagrant" |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Heat water to 212°F or 100°C |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cotton seed target for weevil |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Western string tie |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Runner Usain, or what you screw into a nut |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Small tuna relative; Spanish for “pretty” (masc) |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 1 | BO | 6 | Weeping sound, slang |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Privacy enclosure (voting, phone …), or Lincoln assassin |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Each of 2 things (I’ll take this AND that), adv. |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Small, human-like creature with hairy feet - prominent in Tolkein stories |
| 1 | HO | 6 | Rhyming compound word: socialize (… with) (rich or powerful people, usually), verb; or Brit oat biscuit |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Tramp, vagrant; anagram of hippie chic fashion |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Otter den |
| 1 | HO | 4 | Owl sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | IN | 10 | Hinder, restrain, or prevent (cold weather …s plant growth), something that does this is a pangram |
| 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Roaring animal that travels in a pride (… King) |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Print made with a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Wolf, Spanish |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Sex organ region of body (fruit of my …s); anagram of “… King” animal |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 1 | LO | 4 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 1 | LO | 6 | Moisturizing or suntan cream |
| 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 1 | NO | 9 | 1 followed 30 zeroes; Latin 9 prefix |
| 1 | NO | 4 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 1 | OB | 4 | Death write-up in newspaper, slang abbr. |
| 1 | OL | 4 | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (paid at a booth) |
| 1 | TO | 9 | Place where they collect fees for using a road, compound |
| 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a …box |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car…) |
| 1 | TO | 4 | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 1 | TO | 5 | What you chew with |
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