- Letters: G/AEMNTU
- Words: 45
- Points: 225
- 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 | AG | 5 | Banded quartz, perhaps a toy marble |
| 1 | AG | 5 | Person who acts on behalf of another person or group (secret …) |
| 1 | AG | 4 | Old fashioned word for illness involving fever and shivering |
| 1 | AU | 7 | Make something bigger by adding to it, pangram verb |
| 2 | EN | 6,10 | Commit to marry (with an …-ment ring) |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Super enthusiastic; Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Competitive form of play (poker, soccer, Scrabble, etc.) |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Bio term for mature reproductive cell (sperm, e.g.) |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Γ, γ (3rd Greek letter), & shortest-length EM radiation (… rays) |
| 1 | GA | 5 | The whole range of something |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain …"), noun/verb |
| 1 | GA | 6 | Large white plunge-diving seabird |
| 1 | GA | 4 | Hinged barrier, or airplane boarding area |
| 1 | GA | 6 | French for cake |
| 2 | GA | 4,5 | Measuring dial (fuel …) |
| 1 | GA | 5 | Lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age (rhymes with what ghosts do) |
| 1 | GE | 4 | DNA sequence that determines traits, or singing cowboy Autry |
| 1 | GE | 4 | ♂ counterpart to “lady,” slang abbr. |
| 1 | GN | 4 | Tiny flying insect |
| 2 | GU | 6,6 | ♂ who wields a firearm, compound |
| 1 | MA | 4 | Literary term for a wizard |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Light purplish red |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Hot fluid below Earth’s crust; lava before it’s erupted |
| 1 | MA | 7 | Wealthy and influential person, especially in business |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Metal that attracts materials such as iron, steel, or nickel |
| 1 | MA | 6 | Wine bottle of twice the standard size |
| 2 | MA | 6,10 | Administer (she got promoted to …ment) |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Japanese graphic novels |
| 1 | MA | 5 | Skin disease caused by mites, especially in dogs |
| 1 | ME | 4 | Greek prefix for large, often used to mean 1 million |
| 1 | MU | 4 | Small round green bean native to India, noun |
| 1 | MU | 7 | Substance that can cause genetic changes, pangram noun |
| 1 | NA | 7 | Sticker you wear to identify yourself, compound |
| 1 | NE | 6 | Nullify; make ineffective |
| 1 | NU | 6 | Small breaded chicken serving, or gold ore chunk |
| 1 | NU | 6 | Spice from the seeds of an evergreen native to the Maluku Islands (Myristica fragrans) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 1 | TA | 7 | Completely different line of thought or action (sometimes I go off on a …); (math) a line or plane that approximates a curve or surface at a point; or (math) trig function (sine/cosine), the inverse (cosine/sine) is a pangram |
| 1 | TE | 7 | Between twelve and twenty |
| 1 | UN | 5 | Identification label, noun/verb; or kids' game (…, you're it) |
| 1 | UN | 7 | A salve, noun |
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