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. The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here
Table content
| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AB | 4 | Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something, adj. (She was … to walk at 14 months) |
| 4 | 1 | AL | 4 | Friend (person, country) who joins you for a common purpose in a conflict |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 5 | Put (fears) at rest |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 5 | Two or more metals combined to make a new one, (brass, steel, etc.); noun/verb |
| 7 | 1 | AR | 4 | Creative activity: painting, music, literature, dance, etc |
| 5 | 1 | AR | 5 | Ordered series, esp. math |
| 6 | 1 | AR | 6 | Steep-sided gully in SW US; Spanish for creek |
| 8 | 1 | AT | 7 | Slang 3–word contraction: exclamation of encouragement or congratulations; ends in young ♂ |
| 9 | 1 | BA | 4 | Infant |
| 11 | 1 | BA | 5 | What you use to hit the ball in games such as baseball or cricket; flying mammal |
| 12 | 1 | BA | 6 | Young ♂ who tends the Yankees’ equipment, esp. sticks; compound |
| 10 | 1 | BA | 7 | Young ♂ who retrieves orbs in games (tennis, e.g.) |
| 13 | 1 | BL | 6 | Reveal a secret by indiscreet talk |
| 14 | 1 | BL | 6 | Gelatinous mass, or 1950s alien horror film |
| 15 | 1 | BO | 5 | Seabird with colorful feet, or gag "prize" |
| 16 | 1 | BO | 5 | Stolen goods (pirate or war...), or slang for ass (shake your…) |
| 18 | 1 | BR | 4 | Donkey sound |
| 17 | 1 | BR | 6 | Badly behaved child; or a type of sausage (…wurst) |
| 19 | 1 | LA | 10 | Place where a chemist might work |
| 20 | 1 | LO | 5 | Bldg. entrance area or waiting room |
| 22 | 1 | LO | 5 | “Truck” in Britspeak |
| 23 | 1 | LO | 5 | Faithful, devoted |
| 23 | 2 | LO | 7 | Faithful, devoted |
| 21 | 1 | LO | 8 | Southern US yellow pine tree, or SE US tea evergreen |
| 24 | 1 | OA | 4 | Grain that is Quaker's specialty |
| 25 | 1 | OR | 6 | Spoken (… exam), or by mouth (… surgery), adjective |
| 26 | 1 | OR | 7 | Make a speech |
| 27 | 1 | RA | 5 | Mass meeting of people for a common cause (pep, political) |
| 28 | 1 | RA | 5 | Sewer-dwelling rodent |
| 29 | 1 | RA | 6 | Rapid succession of short, sharp knocking sounds, noun/verb; or make someone nervous, worried, or irritated |
| 32 | 1 | RO | 5 | Prince or king adj. + adv. (“… flush” in poker) |
| 30 | 1 | RO | 6 | Phone with dial, adj., or int’l service org (… Club) |
| 32 | 2 | RO | 7 | Prince or king adj. + adv. (“… flush” in poker) |
| 31 | 1 | RO | 8 | Move in a circle around an axis or center |
| 33 | 1 | TA | 5 | Striped cat with a distinctive M on its forehead |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 5 | Add up (keep a running…, or …–Ho! The quarry is in sight) |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 5 | Dark, thick, flammable liquid distilled from wood or coal |
| 38 | 1 | TA | 5 | Worn & shabby, or of poor quality; Scottish |
| 37 | 1 | TA | 6 | Open filled pastry, noun; or sharp taste, adj. |
| 34 | 1 | TA | 7 | Dresser with a wardrobe on top, or 24 oz. beer can (more than average height + young ♂) |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 7 | The whole amount (sum of numbers, e.g.) |
| 40 | 1 | TR | 4 | Use it to carry drinks |
| 41 | 1 | TR | 4 | Helen of “The Iliad” home, or oz. for gold & gems |
| 42 | 1 | TY | 4 | Newbie, from Latin “recruit” |
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.