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 | 1/100th of a dollar |
| 2 | 1 | C | Quote as evidence |
| 3 | 1 | C | Excessive pride in oneself |
| 4 | 1 | C | Ice cream holder shape |
| 5 | 2 | C | Join (4, perhaps?) things together, verb + noun |
| 6 | 1 | C | (of a word or fact) imply, verb + its resulting noun ("cheap" has a negative…) |
| 7 | 2 | C | Peacefully happy or satisfied, adj.; or what’s included, noun (a book’s “table of…s”) |
| 8 | 2 | C | Ability to control bowel movements or bladder functions |
| 9 | 2 | C | One of the world's seven main bodies of land |
| 10 | 1 | C | Kid’s imaginary germ, or a body louse |
| 11 | 1 | C | Dove shelter, NOT a jacket |
| 12 | 1 | E | Region of transition between 2 biological communities, starts with “green” prefix |
| 13 | 2 | E | Force or throw something out; escape from a disabled fighter plane |
| 14 | 1 | E | Legal term meaning to prohibit someone from doing something |
| 15 | 1 | E | Friendly understanding between countries, French |
| 16 | 1 | E | Tempt or lure by offering pleasure or advantage |
| 17 | 1 | I | Provoke unlawful behavior (…a riot) |
| 18 | 2 | I | Introduce a liquid into a body using a syringe or similar device |
| 19 | 1 | I | Concave belly button, slang |
| 20 | 2 | I | Guiltless |
| 21 | 2 | I | Determined to do (I’m…on finishing this puzzle), adj.; or objective, noun |
| 22 | 1 | J | Ballet jump (French) |
| 23 | 1 | N | Hawaiian goose & state bird |
| 24 | 1 | N | Person with non-traditional right-wing political views, slang abbr. |
| 25 | 1 | N | Atomic number 10, gas in lighted signs |
| 26 | 1 | N | Pleasant in manner, or city in SE France |
| 27 | 1 | N | Addictive substance in tobacco |
| 28 | 1 | N | Your sibling’s daughter |
| 29 | 1 | N | Number of justices on Supreme Court |
| 30 | 1 | N | One more than the number of holes on a golf course |
| 31 | 1 | N | Part of the day when it’s dark, slang spelling |
| 32 | 1 | N | Literary word meaning “for the [time being]” |
| 33 | 1 | N | Quantity of zero; “all” antonym |
| 34 | 1 | N | Group of 9 (musicians) |
| 35 | 1 | N | What you pass to someone in class, or ♪ in music |
| 36 | 1 | N | Become aware of, verb; or written announcement (board) |
| 37 | 1 | O | Group of 8 (musicians) |
| 38 | 1 | O | A single time (they deliver…a week) |
| 39 | 1 | T | Earth plates that shift & cause quakes, adj. |
| 40 | 1 | T | Adolescent (...-ager), or numbers 13–19 |
| 41 | 1 | T | Recent Christopher Nolan time-travel film, or a principle or belief |
| 42 | 1 | T | Projecting piece of wood attached to a mortise |
| 43 | 1 | T | Shelter you sleep in while camping |
| 44 | 1 | T | Fork prong |
| 45 | 2 | T | Character of sound, a sound (dial or ring-); noun; give greater strength or firmness to a body or a muscle; verb |
| 46 | 1 | T | 1,000 kilograms, UK spelling; double the last consonant in above |
| 47 | 1 | T | Annuity scheme where last survivor collects all |
| 48 | 1 | T | Canada $2 coin nickname derived from their $1 avian coin name |
| 49 | 1 | T | Reusable bag, noun; or schlep, 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.