- Letters: B/ADORTU
- Words: 48
- Points: 187
- 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 | AB | 5 | Head monk, perhaps at Downton |
| 1 | AB | 6 | Train conductor cry: “All …!” (“Get on now!”) |
| 1 | AB | 5 | Call off (a mission or takeoff, e.g.) |
| 1 | AB | 5 | Regarding, preposition |
| 1 | AB | 6 | Overseas (travel …) |
| 1 | AB | 4 | Be next to; share a common border |
| 1 | AD | 5 | Filipino stew or Mexican seasoning |
| 1 | AR | 5 | Tree garden; its “Day” is the last Friday in April in many places |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Rum sponge cake, or Ali & his 40 thieves |
| 1 | BA | 6 | African tree |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Sharp projection near end of fishhook or on top of wire fence; start of Streisand name |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Archaic term for “poet”; Shakespeare’s “… of Avon” nickname |
| 1 | BA | 4 | Unit of data modulation speed, once commonly used for dial-up connections |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Wild pig |
| 1 | BO | 5 | Plank of wood, noun; or get on a vehicle, verb |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Small ship, as in “tug-” |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Taiwan sweet tea with gelatin pearls |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Lout, NOT wild pig |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Cowboy or winter shoe |
| 1 | BO | 4 | Short period (… of insomnia or depression, e.g.), or wrestling or boxing match |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Small nail, or Janet's hubby in “Rocky Horror” |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Badly behaved child; or a type of sausage (…wurst) |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Wide, or slang term for ♀, adj. + adv. |
| 1 | BR | 5 | Fret about, or a hen sitting on eggs, verb + adj. |
| 1 | BR | 4 | Very dry champagne |
| 1 | BU | 5 | Southern good ole boy |
| 1 | BU | 4 | Shortened word for a town neighboring a city |
| 1 | BU | 6 | Fish species aka mariah aka lota lota aka the only species of freshwater cod |
| 1 | BU | 4 | Prickly seed case |
| 1 | BU | 7 | Cheese made from mozzarella and cream |
| 1 | BU | 5 | Donkey, Spanish |
| 1 | BU | 4 | Hit with head or horns (… heads with), verb; or slang abbr. for your rump, noun |
| 1 | DA | 9 | Target for small pointy missiles thrown in bars or basements, compound |
| 1 | DA | 4 | Coat, smear, verb (mud …er wasp) |
| 1 | DO | 5 | Be uncertain, especially if you think something is probably not true, verb/noun (benefit of the …) |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Dull, lacking brightness or interest, adj. |
| 1 | DR | 4 | Defeat soundly, especially in sports |
| 1 | OU | 8 | Toward the outside of a boat, ship, or aircraft, adj. (… motor), compound pangram |
| 1 | RO | 5 | Machine resembling a human |
| 1 | TA | 6 | Sleeveless jerkin consisting only of front and back pieces with a hole for the head |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Forbidden, cultural no-nos |
| 1 | TA | 5 | Small drum used to accompany a pipe or fife played by the same person |
| 1 | TR | 10 | French medieval lyric poet, pangram |
| 1 | TU | 4 | Biggest brass instrument; Sousaphone is a modified one that can be used in parades |
| 1 | TU | 5 | Extra boost on an engine, abbr. (…-charged, –Tax) |
| 1 | TU | 6 | Flat fish; 1 letter added to extra boost |
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