- Letters: R/ACDIMT
- Words: 48
- Points: 222
- 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 | AC | 5 | Strong & unpleasant taste or smell, adj., noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | AR | 7 | Region or scene of simple pleasure or quiet, city near LA, or mountainous southern region of Greece |
| 1 | AR | 6 | North Pole adj. (… Circle or Ocean) |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Opera solo |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Dry (climate or land), adj. |
| 1 | AR | 6 | Warship fleet (Spanish one defeated by England in 1588) |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Flower oil for perfume |
| 1 | AT | 7 | Entice, lure, or evoke (… attention; opposites …), verb |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Unit of weight for gems, NOT bunny food |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Thing used to play poker & bridge, noun; or ask for ID as proof of age before entry, verbified noun |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Heart, medical adj. (… arrest) |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Shopping trolley you push |
| 1 | CA | 8 | Eye cloudiness, or waterfall |
| 1 | CI | 5 | “Around” when used before a year, Latin |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Cloud forming wispy streaks (“mare's tails”) at high altitude |
| 1 | CI | 6 | Tree genus that includes lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit, or the fruit of those trees |
| 1 | CR | 4 | Study intensely just before a test (stuff facts into your brain), or stuff into a box; verb |
| 1 | CR | 6 | Fault-finder (“everyone’s a …”), or arts & dining reviewer |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Spike thrown at a board |
| 1 | DI | 9 | Accent or other pronunciation mark on a letter, NOT a fault-finder |
| 1 | DI | 4 | Soil |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Scottish whisky serving size, ⅛ oz. |
| 2 | DR | 5,8 | Serious or exciting play, show, film, or events (Don’t be such a … queen!), adj. form is a pangram |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Mild exclamation of annoyance used by cartoon villains, anagram of spike thrown at board |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Rattle shaken in music |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Old-timey schoolteacher honorific |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Store (K–, Wal–) |
| 1 | MI | 6 | Location descriptor of plane “collision” that occurs in the sky |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Distance from a point on a circle to the center |
| 1 | RA | 4 | Sudden attack, as in “air” or police;” or insect spray |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Covered porch, or hotel brand |
| 1 | RA | 7 | Machine gun sound |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese rich, naturally fermented soy sauce |
| 2 | TA | 6,10 | Airport runway area |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Fish sauce, or tooth buildup |
| 1 | TI | 5 | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Large land area, or body passage (“digestive …”) |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 4 | People mover in Disney parks, parking lots, & cities |
| 1 | TR | 7 | Single unit of a public transit vehicle, compound noun |
| 1 | TR | 5 | Group of 3 |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
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