- Letters: A/EHNOPT
- Words: 64
- Points: 286
- Pangrams: 3
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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 | AE | 4 | Geologic time period, spelled with an æsc; “… Flux” anime |
| 1 | AN | 7 | Orange-red dye obtained from the pulp of a tropical fruit, used for coloring foods and fabric; also used as a condiment; or the tree it comes from (Bixa orellana) |
| 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 1 | AN | 4 | $ to join a poker game, or “before” prefix |
| 2 | AN | 7,8 | It picks up TV or radio signals |
| 1 | AN | 8 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | AP | 5 | Sleep breathing disorder |
| 1 | AT | 5 | Make up for something you did wrong |
| 1 | AT | 4 | Opposite of bottom |
| 1 | EA | 5 | Consume food |
| 1 | ET | 6 | Two-carbon chain, alcohol form is a pangram |
| 1 | HA | 6 | Occur |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Dislike intensely, verb/noun |
| 1 | HA | 4 | Archaic 3rd person singular present form of "possess" (Hell … no fury) |
| 1 | HA | 5 | Yoga type that pairs poses with breathing |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Stack in a disorderly pile, verb/noun |
| 1 | HE | 4 | Warm up in the oven, verb; or extreme warmth, noun, adv. form is a pangram |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Candy bar with toffee & milk chocolate, actor Ledger, or British field |
| 1 | HE | 7 | Infidel; pagan; outside any widely held religion |
| 1 | HE | 5 | Hair or temp. tattoo dye |
| 1 | HE | 7 | Seven-carbon chain |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | NA | 4 | Scruff of the neck |
| 1 | NA | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 1 | NE | 5 | Under; below (drop the first syllable for a dated literary form) |
| 1 | NE | 4 | Tide with least difference between low & high water |
| 2 | NE | 4,6 | Tidy |
| 1 | NE | 7 | Newborn |
| 1 | NO | 6 | Write something, for example music, in a specialized system; or write comments in the margins of a book |
| 1 | OA | 5 | Grain that is Quaker's specialty |
| 1 | OA | 4 | Vow or pledge (you’re under one in court testimony) |
| 1 | PA | 5 | Song of praise or triumph |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Single sheet of window glass |
| 1 | PA | 9 | Rich Italian bread made with eggs, fruit, and butter and typically eaten at Christmas |
| 1 | PA | 4 | What a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun |
| 1 | PA | 8 | All the gods of a religion (pangram) |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Chopped liver (… de foie gras) or other spréâd (French), or archaic for a person’s head |
| 2 | PA | 6,8 | Legal document that protects an invention |
| 1 | PA | 4 | Walking or bike trail |
| 1 | PE | 6 | ♀ of a bird with showy plumage |
| 1 | PE | 4 | Fuel from bog soil, NOT Secretary Buttigieg |
| 1 | PE | 7 | Baseball banner |
| 1 | PE | 7 | Five-carbon chain |
| 1 | PH | 7 | Lightweight, open, four-wheeled horse-drawn owner-driven carriage, pangram |
| 1 | PH | 4 | “Excellent” in hip-hop slang, NOT obese |
| 1 | PH | 7 | Produce sounds by the vibration of vocal chords (scientific term), pangram |
| 1 | PO | 5 | Daddy |
| 1 | PO | 6 | Spud |
| 1 | PO | 9 | Monarch, ruler, or sovereign (the word includes a synonym for powerful) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 1 | TA | 4 | Adhesive strip |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Skin “ink” |
| 1 | TE | 6 | Vessel for heating water to pour on crushed Camellia sinensis leaves to make a hot drink, compound (I'm a little …, short and stout) |
| 1 | TE | 4 | Nipple |
| 1 | TE | 6 | Person a landlord rents to, one of two or more of these is a pangram |
| 1 | TH | 4 | Comparison word (bigger … a breadbox) |
| 1 | TH | 5 | Feudal lord, ranking between an ordinary freeman and a hereditary noble |
| 1 | TH | 4 | Pronoun for the other thing (this & …) |
| 1 | TH | 5 | 8th Greek letter, Θ |
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