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
| clue # | words covered | root 1st letter | clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | C | Lump of blood that stops bleeding or circulation |
| 2 | 1 | C | Gather (used plates), solicit & receive (charity $), or acquire (rare coins); verb |
| 3 | 1 | C | Flange or socket for setting a gem |
| 4 | 1 | C | Young ♂ horse |
| 5 | 1 | C | Icy solar system body with a tail |
| 6 | 1 | C | Take part in a contest, strive to win |
| 7 | 1 | C | Having all the necessary or appropriate parts, adj.; finish making or doing something, verb |
| 8 | 1 | C | Fruit preserved or cooked in syrup |
| 9 | 1 | C | Usually hyphenated verb: take for your own use or for another purpose |
| 10 | 1 | C | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 11 | 1 | C | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 12 | 2 | E | Vote into office |
| 13 | 1 | E | Ham it up as an actor |
| 14 | 1 | L | Move from one place to another, verb (usually a noun with -ive suffix meaning what moves a train) |
| 15 | 1 | L | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 16 | 1 | L | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 17 | 1 | M | Encounter (I’m supposed to…him in the park) |
| 18 | 1 | M | What ice cream does when you leave it out of the freezer, verb |
| 19 | 1 | M | Dispense justice (“…out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 20 | 1 | M | Person’s ability to cope with adversity (test your…), NOT iron or tin; noun |
| 21 | 1 | M | Shed feathers, hair, or skin; verb |
| 22 | 1 | M | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a...point) |
| 23 | 1 | M | Small endearingly sweet child |
| 24 | 1 | M | Speck of dust |
| 25 | 1 | M | Place to sleep when you’re travelling (…6, e.g.) |
| 26 | 1 | M | Short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic & unaccompanied |
| 27 | 1 | M | Pattern of irregular spots; usually an adj. |
| 28 | 1 | M | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 29 | 1 | O | Small S Am wild cat |
| 30 | 1 | O | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 31 | 2 | O | Fried eggs folded around fillings such as cheese |
| 32 | 1 | P | Small, rounded, compressed mass (food, buckshot, rabbit dung) |
| 33 | 1 | P | Bombard (with snowballs), verb; or animal fur, noun |
| 34 | 1 | P | Scheme, noun or verb (Roth’s “The … Against America”); or storyline in fiction |
| 35 | 1 | P | Author of verse |
| 36 | 1 | P | (Historical or British) sweet or pretty child, or voodoo doll |
| 37 | 1 | T | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 38 | 2 | T | Native Am conical hut |
| 39 | 1 | T | Industry built around transmitting information |
| 40 | 1 | T | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 41 | 1 | T | Office worker fill-in, slang abbr. |
| 42 | 1 | T | Building devoted to the worship of one or more deities |
| 43 | 1 | T | Speed at which a passage of music is played; more generally, pace of an activity |
| 44 | 1 | T | Entice (as a donut to a dieter, e.g.), verb |
| 45 | 1 | T | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 46 | 1 | T | Large, heavy book |
| 47 | 1 | T | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a ...box |
| 48 | 1 | T | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 49 | 1 | T | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 50 | 1 | T | Small grayish slender-bodied shark, or mango tree grove; homophone of grayish-brown color |
| 51 | 1 | T | Become unsteady & fall, or knock over (think regime change); verb |
| 52 | 1 | T | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, verb |
| 53 | 1 | T | Symbolic object (…pole) |
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.