- Letters: M/AEFILN
- Words: 71
- Points: 321
- Pangrams: 2
|
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
| |
|
Table content
|
| answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AF | 6 | Visible part of a fire (prefixed form is a pangram) |
| 1 | AM | 4 | Prayer-ending word |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Fatigue due to red blood cell shortage |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Jungian term for inner ♀ part of ♂ |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Not a mineral or a veg |
| 1 | AN | 5 | Japanese cartoon |
| 1 | EM | 5 | Letter sent via the internet (with Outlook?), noun/verb |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Opaque or semitransparent glassy substance applied to hard surfaces for ornament or as a protective coating; or the hard coating your teeth have |
| 1 | EN | 5 | Rectal wash (Fleet, e.g.) |
| 1 | FA | 4 | Renown, or 1980s movie & TV show about NYC performing arts HS |
| 1 | FA | 8 | Your relatives, taken as a group (immediate …, nuclear …, … ties) |
| 1 | FA | 6 | Widespread absence of food |
| 1 | FE | 6 | ♀, formal term (the sex that can produce offspring) |
| 1 | FE | 8 | Looking or behaving in ways traditionally associated with women, adj., noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | FE | 5 | Woman in French |
| 1 | FI | 8 | identifier for a data storage unit, compound pangram made from folder of related papers + moniker |
| 1 | FI | 4 | Movie, or celluloid that cameras used to use, noun/verb |
| 1 | FL | 5 | Visible part of a fire (prefixed form is a pangram) |
| 1 | FL | 8 | Swindle (… artist), compound verb |
| 1 | IM | 4 | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 1 | IN | 7 | Visible part of a fire (prefixed form is a pangram) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Tibetan Buddhist monk (Dalai …) |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Disabled or weak; esp. foot or leg, causing a limp |
| 2 | LA | 6,7 | Thin layer of rock, tissue, or other material (think of coating an ID in plastic, without the –TE) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Phonetic term for consonant formed with tip of tongue just behind teeth (add a consonant to above) |
| 1 | LE | 5 | Math term for intermediate or helping theorem in a proof |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Peru capital, or bean |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Small green citrus fruit |
| 1 | LI | 7 | Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold |
| 1 | LI | 4 | (Literary verb) represent by image or words, or outline or highlight |
| 2 | LI | 7,7 | ♂ utility pole worker, or forward ♂ football player, compound |
| 1 | LL | 5 | S Am camel |
| 1 | MA | 5 | The Italian Mob |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Letters you get or send |
| 2 | MA | 7,7 | ♂ letter carrier, compound |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Permanently injure |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Primary (Street), adj. |
| 1 | MA | 8 | Inject a drug intravenously, compound verb |
| 1 | MA | 4 | ♂, the sex that produces sperm |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Shopping center with many stores under one roof |
| 2 | MA | 4,5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 2 | MA | 6,9 | Vertebrate class that has hair, milk, & live birth |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Hair on a horse or ♂ lion’s neck |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Craze, noun (Beatle-…) |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Capital of the Philippines, or brown paper |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Exodus food from the sky |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Breakfast, lunch, or dinner |
| 2 | ME | 4,6 | The average in math, noun; unkind, adj. (“… Girls”); or intend (I didn’t … to do it) |
| 1 | ME | 7 | Skin pigment |
| 1 | ME | 5 | Confusing scuffle |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 1 | ME | 6 | Unskilled and low status, adj. said about work or a job |
| 1 | MI | 4 | A person’s look or expression, NOT an average |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Annoy slightly, verb (it’s usually an –ED adj.) |
| 1 | MI | 4 | 5,280 feet, or 1.6 km |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Wheat or pepper grinder |
| 1 | MI | 10 | A person born between the early 1980s and late 1990s |
| 1 | MI | 9 | A period of 1,000 years |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Silent performer |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Where you dig for ore, or anti-ship bomb |
| 1 | MI | 4 | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 1 | MI | 5 | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 2 | MI | 6,7 | Smallest amount (the … bet at this table is $100) |
| 1 | NA | 4 | What you’re called (Kevin or Susan, e.g.) |
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