- Letters: E/AGILNZ
- Words: 63
- Points: 310
- 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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AG | 6 | How old you are, noun; or grow older, verb; or period of history, noun |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Able to move quickly and easily |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Stare intently |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Pond scum |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 2 | AL | 6,8 | Claim without proof |
| 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Harp-playing winged heaven resident, or Xmas tree topper |
| 1 | AN | 5 | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 2 | AN | 6,9 | Heat then cool metal or glass slowly to toughen it |
| 1 | AZ | 6 | Flowering rhododendron shrub, often red |
| 1 | EA | 5 | A bald one is the USA's national bird |
| 1 | EG | 6 | What baby birds hatch from, noun; or throw those things at a house or car, verb; or encourage someone to do something, usually something dumb, verb |
| 1 | EL | 4 | Énérgy, stylé, énthusiasm; from Frénch |
| 2 | EL | 7,9 | Poem that’s a lament for the dead |
| 2 | EN | 6,8 | Commit to marry (with an …-ment ring) |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Car motor |
| 1 | GA | 6 | A “herd” of geese |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Strong wind storm |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Measuring dial (fuel …) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Stare intently |
| 1 | GA | 7 | Swift African & Asian antelope |
| 1 | GE | 4 | Milder form of “Jesus!” (slang exclamation) |
| 1 | GE | 7 | Thick, clear, slightly sticky substance, especially one used in cosmetic or medicinal products, noun; or become more solid, verb; or take a definite form, verb |
| 1 | GE | 5 | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 1 | GE | 4 | DNA sequence that determines traits, or singing cowboy Autry |
| 1 | GE | 6 | Friendly and cheerful |
| 1 | GE | 5 | Lives in a lamp, grants wishes |
| 1 | GE | 5 | Someone who is exceptionally intelligent or creative |
| 1 | GI | 6 | Silly laugh; verb/noun |
| 1 | GL | 5 | Fit window panes, or overlay with a shiny coating |
| 2 | GL | 5,8 | Gather info from various sources, or take leftover grain after a harvest |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Delight, choir (… club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 1 | GL | 4 | Narrow valley, or Eagles singer Frey |
| 1 | IL | 7 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Stupid, silly, ridiculous (… questions or comments); adj. |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Concave belly button, slang |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Small road (Beatles’ Penny … or Superman’s Lois …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Relax, idle (… around) |
| 2 | LE | 4,7 | Not fatty (… meat), adj.; or incline (… back in your chair) |
| 1 | LE | 7 | Body part that connects the rest of you to your feet |
| 3 | LE | 5,8,10 | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Feudal superior (“Yes, my …”) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Bank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Number of lines in printed or written matter, NOT ancestry |
| 2 | LI | 4,6 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 1 | LI | 7 | Ancestry |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Cloth napkin fabric |
| 1 | NE | 8 | ♀ light dressing gown made of filmy, soft fabric; French term |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Cause slight but persistent annoyance or worry (a …ing suspicion or doubt) |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 1 | ZE | 4 | Fervor, passion, from Jewish sect that opposed Romans |
| 1 | ZI | 4 | Periodical, abbr. (last syllable), esp. fan pub |
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