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 | A | Influence or cause an action, move deeply, or pretend |
| 2 | 1 | A | Grass for hay, or Little Rascal |
| 3 | 1 | C | Small réstaurant selling food & drinks (Intérnét, outdoor…) |
| 4 | 1 | C | Baby cow |
| 5 | 1 | C | Music symbol indicating key (e.g., treble, 🎼); French for “key” |
| 6 | 1 | C | Split (chin), adj. |
| 7 | 1 | C | End of shirt sleeve or pant leg |
| 8 | 1 | E | Make oneself appear insignificant, or remove a mark from an exterior |
| 9 | 3 | E | Result of an action (cause & …) |
| 10 | 1 | E | Pretentious, flowery, or weak, adj. |
| 11 | 1 | F | Front part of head containing eyes, nose, & mouth 😀; noun/verb |
| 12 | 1 | F | 1 side of a cut gem |
| 13 | 2 | F | Thing that is known (for a …) |
| 14 | 1 | F | Fried chickpea balls often served in pita |
| 15 | 1 | F | Autumn, noun; or plummet, verb |
| 16 | 1 | F | Deadly, adj. (“…Attraction” film) |
| 17 | 2 | F | Destiny, kismet, 1 of 3 Greek goddesses who determine yours |
| 18 | 1 | F | What you turn on to get water indoors |
| 19 | 1 | F | Earth fracture where quakes happen (San Andreas…), or weakness; noun |
| 20 | 1 | F | Achievement requiring great courage, skill, or strength (no easy…), noun |
| 21 | 1 | F | Remains of undigested food; excrement |
| 22 | 1 | F | Perceive by touch; or experience (emotion) |
| 23 | 1 | F | Cut or knock down (a tree or opponent, e.g.) |
| 24 | 1 | F | ♂, slang (young or little…) |
| 25 | 1 | F | Perform oral sex on a ♂, verb |
| 26 | 1 | F | Cloth made by rolling and pressing wool with moisture and/or heat |
| 27 | 1 | F | Soft Greek goat cheese, cubed when served |
| 28 | 1 | F | Honor lavishly, verb; from French for “party” |
| 29 | 1 | F | Condition, noun (in fine…); rhymes with whistling teapot |
| 30 | 1 | F | Unborn offspring of a mammal, more advanced than an embryo |
| 31 | 1 | F | Having no depth or height (… as a pancake), or ♭ in music (opposite of ♯) |
| 32 | 1 | F | Rolled tortilla resembling a shrill wind instrument, or the instrument in Spanish |
| 33 | 1 | F | Hopping insect whose bites cause itching in dogs & cats |
| 34 | 1 | F | Run away from danger, NOT a bug that causes itching |
| 35 | 1 | F | Wool from sheep, or fabric (jacket), noun; or overcharge, slang verb |
| 36 | 1 | F | Group of ships sailing together, noun; or enema brand; or able to run fast (… of foot) |
| 37 | 1 | F | Rise and fall irregularly |
| 38 | 1 | F | Chimney duct, NOT a seasonal illness |
| 39 | 1 | F | Dryer lint, noun, or what you do to a flat pillow (… up) |
| 40 | 1 | F | High-pitched wind instrument (Mozart's opera The Magic …) |
| 41 | 1 | F | What you cover with a sock |
| 42 | 1 | F | Gasoline or oil, e.g., noun; or add it to a tank (… up) |
| 43 | 1 | F | At capacity (I can’t finish the meal, I’m …), adj. |
| 44 | 1 | L | Nissan electric car; 4 of these on a clover is lucky |
| 45 | 1 | L | Flier passed out on the street, or to pass them out |
| 46 | 1 | L | ← remaining (only 1 cookie …), or departed |
| 47 | 1 | T | Diplomacy, sensitivity |
| 48 | 1 | T | Fine lustrous silk with crisp texture used for formal gowns |
| 49 | 1 | T | Footstool or low seat (where Little Miss Muffet sat) |
| 50 | 1 | T | Clump of hair that sticks up |
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.