- Letters: C/AEILPT
- Words: 73
- Points: 389
- 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. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
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 | 6 | African or Australian wattle tree |
| 1 | AC | 4 | Trendy smoothie berry |
| 1 | AC | 6 | Consent to receive, or come to believe; verb |
| 3 | AC | 6,6,7 | Vinegar adj., or acid it contains |
| 1 | AL | 6 | S Am mammal similar to but smaller than a llama |
| 1 | AP | 6 | Each, or cost per item, adv. |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Walk back & forth anxiously, verb; or speed of an activity, noun |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Unfinished room below roof; garret |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Succulent plant with a thick stem that usually has spines, lacks leaves, and occasionally has brilliantly colored flowers |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Mineral that’s the principal component of marble; similar to milk nutrient mineral |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 1 | CA | 4 | Superhero back covering, or land that juts into water (… Cod) |
| 1 | CA | 7 | City where government is located (Washington, DC, Albany, Sacramento, etc.) |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Frankenword for a coated pill |
| 1 | CA | 7 | “Cigar tree” |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Feline ♂ whistle; or jeer at passing ♀, compound |
| 1 | CA | 7 | Domestic feline hind appendage; or a tall, reedlike marsh plant with a dark brown, velvety cylindrical head of numerous tiny flowers, compound |
| 1 | CA | 6 | Cows & bulls (… prod) |
| 1 | CE | 6 | Gluten intolerance disease |
| 1 | CE | 4 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 1 | CE | 5 | Yo-Yo Ma’s instrument (also Pablo Casals') |
| 1 | CI | 5 | Short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells; (anatomy) eyelash |
| 1 | CI | 4 | Quote as evidence, adj. form meaning this can be done is a pangram |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Applaud |
| 1 | CL | 5 | Spike on sports shoes |
| 1 | CL | 4 | Device to hold things together (paper or hair …), noun/verb |
| 1 | EC | 5 | Stylé, brilliancé, conspicuous succéss; Frénch for “splintér” or “sparklé” |
| 1 | EC | 8 | Wide-ranging tastes, styles, or ideas; adj. |
| 1 | EC | 8 | The plane of the earth's orbit around the sun |
| 2 | EL | 5,7 | Vote into office |
| 1 | EL | 6 | Draw out a response, verb |
| 2 | EL | 8,10 | Oval shape that planets' orbits take, noun, one of its adj. forms is a pangram |
| 1 | EP | 4 | Long poem celebrating heroic feats, noun; or historically important, adj. (… struggle, … quest) |
| 1 | EP | 9 | Brain disease characterized by seizures |
| 1 | IC | 6 | Frozen water spear formed from drips |
| 1 | IL | 5 | Hip bone |
| 1 | IL | 7 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | IP | 6 | Medicinal syrup that induces vomiting, used to be used for poisonings |
| 1 | IT | 6 | 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑒’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦, to make it so is a pangram |
| 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Produce milk, verb (breastfeed a baby) |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Capillary that absorbs fat in the small intestine |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Milk adj. (think acid in yogurt or sore muscles) |
| 2 | LA | 4,6 | Non-clerical |
| 1 | LA | 7 | Structure such as a pie top crust with strips of dough, e.g. |
| 1 | LI | 4 | Itchy hair parasites |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Not forbidden by law or custom |
| 1 | LI | 5 | Purple flower or shade |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Walk back & forth anxiously, verb; or speed of an activity, noun |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Formal agreement, treaty (don’t make one with the Devil) |
| 1 | PA | 6 | Official residence of a sovereign, archbishop, or other exalted person |
| 1 | PE | 5 | Tranquility |
| 1 | PE | 8 | Similar to Spanish for "film," a protein film (on teeth & smoked meat, e.g.) |
| 1 | PE | 6 | Medical adj. for digestion (… ulcer) |
| 1 | PI | 4 | A printed type size, or medical condition that makes you want to eat non-foods |
| 1 | PI | 7 | Cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley, & butter (chicken or veal …) |
| 1 | PI | 5 | Section of something larger (homophone of “tranquility” term), noun; or assemble (… together), verb |
| 1 | PL | 7 | Make someone less angry or hostile |
| 1 | PL | 5 | A particular position or point in space, noun/verb |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Musical direction meaning “silent” |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Understood without being stated (… agreement), adj. |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 2 | TA | 6,8 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Perceptible by touch, adj. |
| 1 | TA | 9 | Component at the bottom of a violin or cello where the strings attach, compound |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Mineral in baby powder |
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 social media.
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