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 | I | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 2 | 1 | I | Announce upcoming thing (next guest), or prelude (beginner’s course, book preface), slang abbr. |
| 3 | 1 | I | Element Fe (number 26), or hot clothes presser, noun/verb |
| 4 | 1 | M | Smaller version (as in Cooper car), slang abbr. |
| 5 | 1 | M | 1/60 dram, UK music ½ note, or calligraphy short vertical stroke |
| 6 | 1 | M | Underling, as seen in “Despicable Me” |
| 7 | 1 | M | Less important (… detail) or musical chord type, adj., or an underage person |
| 8 | 1 | M | Breath candy or its flavor or plant source, noun; or create coins, verb |
| 9 | 1 | M | Looking glass (“Who’s the fairest of them all?”) |
| 10 | 1 | M | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 11 | 1 | M | Computer screen, to observe, or lizard type |
| 12 | 1 | M | Action by which things change position, or parliamentary proposal; noun |
| 13 | 1 | N | Slang abbr. for chem. used as explosive & heart med. |
| 14 | 1 | N | “Black” in French; or dark mystery genre (film …) |
| 15 | 1 | N | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 16 | 1 | O | Leave out, verb |
| 17 | 1 | O | Veg that makes you cry when cut |
| 18 | 1 | O | Belief or judgment (“In my humble…) |
| 19 | 1 | O | Choice |
| 20 | 1 | P | ♂ who controls prostitutes |
| 21 | 1 | P | Part of bird wing, or small gear engaging with large one (as in “rack & …” steering) |
| 22 | 1 | P | Wine grape variety |
| 23 | 1 | P | Locate exactly, or sharp end of sewing fastener |
| 24 | 1 | P | 16 fluid oz., or typical UK beer serving |
| 25 | 1 | P | Type of bean, horse, or Ford car |
| 26 | 1 | P | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 27 | 1 | P | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 28 | 1 | P | Rock-climbing spike |
| 29 | 1 | P | Indicate with finger, or end of sharp object |
| 30 | 1 | P | Nautical “left,” harbor, or wine from Lisbon |
| 31 | 2 | P | Section of a whole, or food helping |
| 32 | 1 | P | Witch or mad scientist concoction; “love,” e.g. |
| 33 | 1 | P | Stiffly formal and respectable (… and proper) |
| 34 | 1 | P | Of top quality or importance; the upper part in a duet (music) |
| 35 | 1 | P | Spend time making minor adjustments to one's hair, makeup, or clothes |
| 36 | 3 | P | Make a hard copy of computer data, or stamp ink on paper |
| 37 | 1 | P | Existing before in time, adj. (Sorry, I have a … engagement) |
| 38 | 1 | P | Further the progress of something; raise someone's rank |
| 39 | 1 | R | Civil unrest, noun; or to rampage, verb |
| 40 | 1 | R | Indian flatbread that isn’t naan |
| 41 | 1 | R | Spiral pasta, fusilli |
| 42 | 1 | T | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 43 | 1 | T | Rhyming compound adj. that means “of the very best quality” (in … condition) |
| 44 | 1 | T | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
| 45 | 1 | T | Shinto shrine gate, NOT double plural of donut shapes |
| 46 | 1 | T | Italian ice cream with rum, almonds, & cherries |
| 47 | 1 | T | Donut shape |
| 48 | 1 | T | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
| 49 | 1 | T | Musical group of 3 (Kingston …) |
| 50 | 1 | T | Journey, noun (you’ve won a … to Paris!), or stumble (… over your own 2 feet), verb |
| 51 | 1 | T | Son of Poseidon, largest Neptune moon; mollusk with a tall spiral shell |
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.