- Letters: Y/ALOPRT
- Words: 59
- Points: 292
- 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 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Two or more metals combined to make a new one, (brass, steel, etc.); noun/verb |
| 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict, noun/verb |
| 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 | AR | 5 | Ordered series, esp. math |
| 1 | AR | 6 | Steep-sided gully in SW US; Spanish for creek |
| 1 | AR | 4 | Creative activity: painting, music, literature, dance, etc |
| 1 | LO | 5 | Closed curve |
| 1 | LO | 5 | “Truck” in Britspeak |
| 3 | LO | 5,7,7 | Faithful, devoted |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Grain that is Quaker's specialty |
| 1 | OR | 6 | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 1 | OR | 7 | Make a speech |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Petty/trivial/meager, adj. |
| 1 | PA | 7 | Pontiff adj. |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Tropical fruit with black seeds |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Slang term for father or grandfather |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Turn winnings from a bet into a greater amount by gambling, verb/noun |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Ward off a weapon with a countermove, esp. in fencing |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Some but not all, or line combed into hair |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Celebration (birthday …, retirement …, toga …, e.g.) |
| 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 | PA | 6 | Bribe paid to a radio DJ to air a particular song |
| 1 | PA | 7 | List of paid employees, compound |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Staged drama, or what kids do at recess |
| 1 | PL | 4 | Cunning ruse |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Small growth on a stalk (in your colon, e.g.) |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Lacking $, or worse than ideal |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Flower used to make opium or honor veterans |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Having a stout, somewhat fat, body (usually said of a man) |
| 2 | PO | 7,9 | Depict someone (as an actor or on canvas), verb, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Kid’s toilet |
| 1 | PR | 4 | Appeal to God; what you do in a house of worship |
| 1 | PY | 4 | “…-maniac” who likes to start fires, slang abbr. |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Mass meeting of people for a common cause (pep, political), noun/verb, gerund form is a pangram |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Fascinated, mesmerized; adj. |
| 1 | RA | 5 | Sewer-dwelling rodent |
| 1 | RA | 6 | Rapid succession of short, sharp knocking sounds, noun/verb; or make someone nervous, worried, or irritated |
| 1 | RO | 4 | Strong cord made by twisting together strands of fibers, noun/verb |
| 1 | RO | 6 | Phone with dial, adj., or int’l service org (… Club) |
| 1 | RO | 8 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 3 | RO | 5,7,7 | Prince, princess, king, or queen, adj./noun (“… flush” in poker) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running …, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Dark, thick, flammable liquid distilled from wood or coal |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 1 | TO | 7 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Use it to carry drinks or a cafeteria meal |
| 1 | TR | 4 | Helen of “The Iliad” home, or oz. for gold & gems |
| 1 | TY | 4 | Keybord eror, slang |
| 1 | TY | 4 | Newbie, from Latin “recruit” |
| 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