- Letters: B/AEILNV
- Words: 52
- Points: 266
- 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 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months), negated noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | AL | 5 | Criminal’s excuse |
| 1 | AL | 9 | Able to be transferred to new ownership, legal adj. (negative form is better known from in… rights) |
| 1 | AV | 9 | Make use of (… yourself of), or use (to no …) |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Talk rapidly in a foolish or excited way (like an infant); homophone of Genesis “Tower of …,” verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Infant, slugger Ruth, or pig film |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Genesis “Tower of …,” noun |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Fee to avoid prison, noun; scoop water out of a ship, or abandon, verb |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Parcel of hay, noun/verb, or actor Christian |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Whale straining “teeth” |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Where Cinderella lost her slipper, noun; or squeeze or form into a spherical shape, verb/noun |
| 1 | BA | 5 | Unoriginal, dull, noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | BA | 6 | Common yellow plantain variety |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Cause of annoyance, or DC Comics villain (he’s the … of my existence) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Legume (lima …), noun; or hit on the head, verb |
| 1 | BE | 8 | A pitch aimed at a batter’s head, compound |
| 1 | BE | 6 | Head-hugging brimless cap with a button at the crown (propeller optional), NOT a legume |
| 1 | BE | 7 | Straight, direct course between 2 points, compound (think this puzzle’s name) |
| 1 | BE | 4 | Past participle of “to exist” (“How have you … doing?”) |
| 2 | BE | 7,10 | accept something as true; feel sure of the truth of, gerund form isa pangram |
| 1 | BE | 4 | It rings |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Southern pretty ♀ (Scarlett O'Hara, e.g.) |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Sloping edge in carpentry & stonework, noun or verb |
| 1 | BE | 5 | Be in a horizontal resting position, or say something false |
| 1 | BI | 5 | Holy book (starts with Genesis) |
| 2 | BI | 7,8 | Period of 2 years, Latin plural |
| 1 | BI | 4 | Liver secretion, or anger |
| 2 | BI | 4,8 | Invoice, or actor Murray, noun/verb |
| 1 | BI | 7 | Aquatic mollusk that has a compressed body enclosed within a hinged shell, such as oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops |
| 1 | BI | 8 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 1 | BL | 4 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 2 | BL | 4,5 | Russian pancake |
| 1 | EN | 6 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months), negated noun form is a pangram |
| 1 | EN | 8 | Jealousy, noun/verb |
| 1 | IN | 11 | Extraterrestrial (“In space no one can hear you scream”) |
| 1 | LA | 5 | Tag or sticky paper with info (Avery mailing …) |
| 2 | LA | 5,6 | Latin for lips, or lips of vagina |
| 1 | LA | 6 | Easily and frequently altered; unstable |
| 1 | LI | 6 | Responsible by law/legally answerable; likely to do something (he's … to get upset) |
| 2 | LI | 5,7 | Printed slander, noun |
| 2 | LI | 7,8 | Exist, verb; or not on tape (TV show), adj. |
| 1 | NI | 6 | Small, tentative chew, verb; or a snack, noun |
| 1 | VI | 6 | Capable of working successfully/feasible; (biology) capable of surviving or living successfully |
| 1 | VI | 4 | A person's emotional state or the atmosphere of a place as communicated to and felt by others |
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