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. The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here
Table content
| words | root 1st letter | clue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | Relating to high mountains |
| 1 | A | Bee-related adj. |
| 1 | A | Sleep breathing disorder |
| 1 | A | Horrify (his tasteless jokes…me) |
| 3 | A | Ask for a court ruling to be reversed, verb/noun |
| 1 | A | 1 of these fruits a day keeps the doctor away |
| 1 | B | Car horn sound, noun/verb |
| 1 | B | Cover a profanity with a sound (…out) |
| 1 | B | Unexpected minor deviation, such as a (radar) screen spot |
| 1 | E | Fencing sword |
| 1 | L | Jacket edge that’s folded back |
| 1 | L | Forceful jump (of faith?), noun/verb |
| 1 | N | Scruff of the neck |
| 1 | N | Tide with least difference between low & high water |
| 1 | N | Bowling variation with 1 target less than standard; compound |
| 1 | N | Teat that babies suck on |
| 1 | P | Song of praise or triumph |
| 1 | P | Spanish rice, saffron, chicken, and seafood dish |
| 1 | P | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 1 | P | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 1 | P | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 1 | P | White-faced, NOT a bucket |
| 1 | P | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 1 | P | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 1 | P | So intense (a feeling or atmosphere) as to seem almost physical (a…sense of loss), or can be felt by touch |
| 1 | P | Single sheet of window glass |
| 1 | P | Flat component set into the surface of a door or wall; flat surface with instruments (control ...) |
| 1 | P | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 1 | P | Father, slang |
| 1 | P | Pontiff adj. |
| 2 | P | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin, and/or plural in some puzzles) |
| 1 | P | Repeated bell ringing or laughter |
| 1 | P | Small rock (…Beach golf course near Monterey, CA) |
| 2 | P | Skin of a fruit, noun; or to remove it, verb |
| 1 | P | Backside of a hammer |
| 1 | P | Baby bird sound, Easter marshmallow, or a furtive look |
| 1 | P | Relating to punishment (law) |
| 1 | P | ♂ sex organ |
| 1 | P | Tube pasta, vodka optional |
| 1 | P | Heap, stack (dirty laundry, raked leaves, etc.), noun/verb |
| 1 | P | Tablet of medicine |
| 1 | P | Game that involves small metal balls, a sloping table, and flippers; compound |
| 1 | P | Evergreen tree with cones, noun; or to long for, verb |
| 1 | P | Tropical fruit with yellow flesh, segmented skin, and stiff leaves (major crop of Hawaii) |
| 1 | P | Copper or plastic tube that carries water, noun; or to move liquid in one, verb; decorate a cake with icing |
| 1 | P | Tube that transports oil & gas, compound |
| 1 | P | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | P | Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj. |
| 1 | P | Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson…), noun; or prepare in advance, verb |
| 2 | P | Flat geometric surface; or short for flying vehicle |
| 1 | P | Urgent request (Mercy!), or court statement of guilt or innocence |
| 1 | P | Commoner, slang insult, from Latin |
| 2 | P | Military academy cadet, slang |
| 1 | P | Puerto Rican music having a highly syncopated rhythm and often satirical lyrics |
| 1 | P | Can be bent or influenced easily, adj. |
| 1 | P | Ballét bénd |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech 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.
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
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.