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 | Something that signals an actor or other performer, noun/verb |
| 2 | 1 | C | Divide into pieces with a knife or other sharp implement, verb/noun |
| 3 | 2 | C | Adorable (… as a button) or clever (don’t get … with me) |
| 4 | 1 | D | Make up one’s mind |
| 5 | 2 | D | Draw a logical conclusion |
| 6 | 2 | D | Subtract (I have to … taxes from your weekly pay) |
| 7 | 1 | D | Notice (Do I … a hint of lemon in this cake?) |
| 8 | 1 | D | A playing card with the number 2 on it (the … of spades), noun |
| 9 | 1 | D | Perform an action, achieve or complete something; hairstyle (American slang); social event (British slang) |
| 10 | 2 | D | Air conduit in a home or building (dryer …), or tube in a body (tear …) |
| 11 | 2 | D | Slang for “guy” (Aerosmith “…Looks Like a Lady”), noun; dress up elaborately, verb |
| 12 | 1 | D | Expected at or planned for at a certain time; what is owed |
| 13 | 2 | D | Performance by 2 people (music, dance, etc.) |
| 14 | 1 | D | Make persistent demands, verb; Dull grayish-brown color, noun/adjective |
| 15 | 1 | D | Stupid person (he has to sit in the corner & wear a … cap) |
| 16 | 1 | D | A mound of sand (… buggy), or Herbert desert planet book series & films |
| 17 | 1 | E | Revise text |
| 18 | 2 | E | Formal verb meaning to draw out something hidden |
| 19 | 2 | E | Provide with a quality or ability |
| 20 | 1 | E | World weariness (French) |
| 21 | 1 | E | French for “study,” or short musical exercise piece |
| 22 | 2 | I | Cause labor to start (medical); persuade or influence someone to do something |
| 23 | 3 | I | Admit someone to an organization (they were …ed into the Hall of Fame) |
| 24 | 1 | I | Mean to do something (what do you …?) |
| 25 | 2 | I | TurboTax company, or know by feeling rather than evidence |
| 26 | 1 | N | Require; verb/noun |
| 27 | 4 | N | Unclothed (in the …), adj. |
| 28 | 2 | T | Fasten with string or cord, verb/noun |
| 29 | 4 | T | Sync the pitch of instruments before concerts |
| 30 | 1 | T | Upper body garment in a uniform or in ancient Greece & Rome |
| 31 | 1 | T | Make an exclamation expressing disapproval or annoyance |
| 32 | 1 | T | Private instructor |
| 33 | 1 | T | All together, musically (Italian); Little Richard “Wop bop a loo bop” song |
| 34 | 1 | T | Ballet skirt, or S Afr Bishop Desmond |
| 35 | 1 | U | Something whole on its own but part of larger thing (apartment, Army squad, e.g.) |
| 36 | 2 | U | Bring together |
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.