- Letters: N/BEILTU
- Words: 59
- Points: 277
- Pangrams: 2
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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 | BE | 7 | Straight, direct course between 2 points, compound (think this puzzle’s name) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 1 | BE | 8 | Imaginary band around waist, or railway or road around a city, compound |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Shape into a curve, or Oregon city |
| 1 | BI | 6 | Use teeth to cut into food (take a … out of the apple) |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Russian pancake |
| 1 | BL | 5 | (Of a knife) not sharp, or (of talk) frank; adj. or hollowed-out cigar filled with pot, noun |
| 1 | BU | 8 | Short official statement, or news summary (pin your note to the…board), pangram |
| 1 | BU | 4 | Tap a baseball instead of swinging |
| 1 | EB | 9 | Cheerful & full of energy, pangram adj. |
| 1 | EN | 5 | World weariness (French) |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Friendly understanding between countries (French) |
| 1 | EN | 7 | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb; or a document showing you own a car or house |
| 1 | IN | 7 | Erect or assemble, verb; past tense is slang adj. for muscular |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Concave belly button, slang |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Computer chip maker; or what spies collect, abbr. |
| 1 | IN | 6 | Determined to do (I’m … on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 1 | IN | 6 | TurboTax company, or know by feeling rather than evidence |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Allow; rent |
| 1 | IN | 7 | Useful, formal adj. (think of what Batman wears on his waist) |
| 1 | LE | 7 | Merciful, not strict (as a judge or parent, e.g.) |
| 1 | LE | 4 | Pre–Easter holiday when you give up meat, noun; or “borrowed” counterpart, verb |
| 1 | LE | 6 | Bean for soup or curry |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Bank hold on a mortgaged property, NOT tilt |
| 1 | LI | 4 | A queue, what you wait in for your turn |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Cloth napkin fabric |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Mainly brown & gray finch with a reddish breast & forehead (rhymes with the type of piano I have) |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Horiz. beam across a door or window top |
| 1 | LU | 4 | Moon, French (Debussy’s “Clair de …”) |
| 1 | LU | 7 | ½–moon shaped architectural space, starts with above; from French “little moon” |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 1 | NE | 6 | “Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 1 | NI | 8 | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 1 | NI | 4 | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 1 | NU | 6 | Small bump, or small stunted ear of corn |
| 1 | NU | 6 | Small knob or lump |
| 1 | NU | 6 | (About a young woman) old enough to marry |
| 1 | NU | 4 | Having no legal or binding force; invalid |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Adolescent (…ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 1 | TE | 5 | A principle or belief; or a Christopher Nolan time-travel film |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Fork prong |
| 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
| 1 | TU | 6 | Artificial underground passage (Lincoln or Holland…from NJ to Manhattan, e.g.) |
| 1 | UN | 6 | It holds your pants up |
| 1 | UN | 6 | Shape into a curve, or Oregon city |
| 1 | UN | 7 | Erect or assemble, verb; past tense is slang adj. for muscular |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Allow; rent |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Illumination, noun/verb (Let there be …) |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Fasten with string or cord, verb/noun |
| 1 | UN | 6 | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
| 1 | UN | 4 | Something whole on its own but part of larger thing (apartment, Army squad, e.g.) |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Bring together |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Up to, preposition or conjunction (You have … 5 pm to finish) |
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