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 | B | Porters, hotel ♂ (plural) who carry bags in response to a ding sound (compound) |
| 2 | 1 | E | The periodic table is full of these (singular) |
| 3 | 1 | E | (Heraldic) symbol or badge (of a nation) |
| 4 | 1 | E | Renowned (scholar); used with “domain” to mean gov property grab |
| 5 | 1 | E | Give off (radiation, signals) |
| 6 | 1 | I | Drink (alcohol) (formal) |
| 7 | 1 | I | About to happen (...demise, e.g.), adj. |
| 8 | 1 | I | One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register |
| 9 | 1 | L | General term for an arm or leg, or large tree branch (go out on a…) |
| 10 | 1 | L | Small green citrus fruit |
| 11 | 1 | L | Size, speed, or amount restriction |
| 12 | 1 | L | (Literary verb) represent by image or words, or outline or highlight |
| 13 | 1 | L | ♂ utility pole workers, or forward ♂ football players (compound) |
| 14 | 1 | L | Oily pain-relieving liquid or lotion |
| 15 | 1 | L | Small (Stuart or Chicken…), adj. |
| 16 | 1 | M | Encounter (I’m supposed to…him in the park) |
| 17 | 1 | M | Confusing scuffle |
| 18 | 1 | M | What ice cream does when you leave it out of the freezer, verb |
| 19 | 1 | M | Viral internet funny image, noun/verb |
| 20 | 1 | M | Person who is trained by a guide (–EE suffix) |
| 21 | 1 | M | Dispense justice (“…out punishment”), homophone of “animal flesh for consumption” |
| 22 | 1 | M | Person’s ability to cope with adversity (test your…), NOT iron or tin; noun |
| 23 | 1 | M | A person’s look or expression, NOT an average |
| 24 | 1 | M | 5,280 feet, or 1.6 km |
| 25 | 1 | M | Wheat or pepper grinder |
| 26 | 1 | M | Grain used as food; pearl is most common |
| 27 | 1 | M | Silent performer |
| 28 | 1 | M | Where you dig for ore, or anti-ship bomb |
| 29 | 1 | M | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 30 | 1 | M | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 31 | 1 | M | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 32 | 1 | M | Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today) |
| 33 | 1 | M | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 34 | 1 | M | Fingerless winter glove for a kid or Sen. Bernie Sanders at inauguration |
| 35 | 1 | N | Agile, or what “Jack be” in nursery rhyme; adj. |
| 36 | 1 | N | Large gray rain cloud |
| 37 | 1 | T | Be full or swarming with; homophone of Yankees group |
| 38 | 1 | T | Set of rooms within a house, or cheap multi-family bldg. |
| 39 | 1 | T | What clocks measure & display |
| 40 | 1 | T | Chronology of events or Facebook posts (compound) |
| 41 | 1 | T | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb |
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.