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 | Italian slang for heartburn from stress |
| 2 | 1 | A | Make someone nervous, campaign for a cause, or stir briskly (clothes in a washing machine, e.g.), verb |
| 3 | 1 | A | Scope, obscure noun (Netflix chess film “The Queen’s G…”) |
| 4 | 1 | B | Container made of flexible material with an opening at the top, used for carrying things, noun/verb |
| 5 | 1 | B | (Put a) worm on a fishing hook; verb/noun |
| 6 | 1 | B | Pale sandy yellowish-brown color |
| 7 | 1 | B | Opposite of small |
| 8 | 1 | B | Use teeth to cut into food (take a…out of the apple) |
| 9 | 1 | E | Give off (radiation, signals) |
| 10 | 1 | G | A person way of walking, or an animal’s pace (esp. horse); NOT a hinged fence opening |
| 11 | 1 | G | Risky move calculated to gain an advantage |
| 12 | 1 | G | Insulting or mocking remark, noun/verb |
| 13 | 1 | G | A billion of the smallest unit of data (my internet at home is slow, but at work we have a ...) |
| 14 | 1 | G | Slang for an easy answer, or a rude way of saying “hand it over!” |
| 15 | 2 | I | Poetic metrical foot (…pentameter) |
| 16 | 1 | I | Picture or other representation of a person or thing (mirror…is that thing reversed), or public perception of a celebrity or company (polish their…), noun |
| 17 | 1 | I | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 18 | 1 | I | Drink (alcohol) (formal) |
| 19 | 1 | I | Copy someone’s speech or mannerisms |
| 20 | 1 | I | One thing as part of a set, 10 or fewer of these at an express register |
| 21 | 1 | M | The 3 biblical wise ♂, Latin plural |
| 22 | 1 | M | Permanently injure |
| 23 | 1 | M | A million of the smallest unit of data (my internet at home is slow, but my neighbor has 50 ...s) |
| 24 | 1 | M | Silent performer |
| 25 | 1 | M | Tiny tick, or very small amount (I'm a … testy today) |
| 26 | 1 | M | Lessen the gravity of an offense (…-ing circumstances), verb |
| 27 | 1 | M | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 28 | 1 | T | Boreal or snow coniferous forest biome of high northern latitudes |
| 29 | 1 | T | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 30 | 1 | T | Britspeak for the early afternoon hour when you serve a steeped beverage, NOT a golf green reservation; compound; ends in list word |
| 31 | 2 | T | Shin bone |
| 32 | 1 | T | What clocks measure & display |
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.