- Letters: Y/AILNPT
- Words: 41
- Points: 217
- 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 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict, noun/verb |
| 1 | AN | 6 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Submit your résumé (to a college or job), or be relevant (terms & conditions may …), one who does this is a pangram |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | IL | 4 | Not healthy, sick, adverb/noun; hardly, or only with difficulty, adverb (they could … afford the cost of a new car) |
| 1 | IN | 7 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | IN | 7 | Stupid, silly, ridiculous (… questions or comments); adj. |
| 1 | IN | 9 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien) |
| 1 | IN | 5 | Decorate something by embedding pieces of a different material in it, flush with its surface, compound |
| 1 | IT | 4 | Really small, slang; usually paired with rhyming B word |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Non-clerical |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Monet floral subject (water …) |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Dryer fluff |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Body part with which you kiss |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Tedious series of complaints |
| 1 | NA | 5 | ♀ goat, or nursemaid |
| 1 | NA | 8 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 2 | NA | 5,7 | Well dressed, adj. |
| 1 | NI | 5 | Foolish or silly person |
| 1 | NI | 5 | Pinch, squeeze, or bite sharply, verb/noun |
| 1 | PA | 5 | ♀ undergarment, slang (…hose) |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Pontiff adj. |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Tropical fruit with black seeds |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Slang term for father or grandfather |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand, verb; or simple and somewhat glib or unconvincing, adj. (… answer) |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Peppermint candy (& friend of Marcie in “Peanuts”) or burger form |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Brit slang abbr. for a sleeveless dress or apron worn over clothing or as a team uniform |
| 1 | PI | 4 | Feeling of sorrow for someone who’s had misfortunes, noun or verb (Mr. T: “I … the fool”) |
| 1 | PL | 7 | Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj. |
| 1 | PL | 7 | Semi-aquatic egg-laying Australian mammal |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Staged drama, or what kids do at recess |
| 1 | PL | 8 | Flexible, often has COM– prefix; anagram of legal term for an accusation, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Silvery-white metal, atomic number 50 (Cat on a Hot … Roof) |
| 2 | TI | 4,6 | Very small, adj., “Christmas Carol” kid |
| 1 | TI | 5 | The end of a pointed thing, noun; money given for good service, noun/verb |
| 1 | YA | 5 | Sharp, shrill bark; slang term for a person's mouth; Pacific island with giant coins |
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