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 | Lemon in French; in English an Asian lemon or vodka flavor |
| 2 | 1 | C | Spherical or nearly spherical bacterium |
| 3 | 1 | C | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 4 | 1 | C | Burial box |
| 5 | 1 | C | Style someone’s hair, verb/noun |
| 6 | 1 | C | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 7 | 1 | C | Fiber from the outer husk of the coconut, used for making ropes & matting |
| 8 | 2 | C | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 9 | 1 | C | Ice cream holder shape |
| 10 | 1 | C | Duck or other meat cooked & preserved in its own fat, French |
| 11 | 1 | C | Meet someone face to face in order to argue; face up to or deal with a problem |
| 12 | 2 | C | Twist or bend out of the normal shape |
| 13 | 1 | C | Remorseful, sorry (with a … heart) |
| 14 | 1 | C | Foolish old ♂, or water bird |
| 15 | 1 | C | Veg on a cob |
| 16 | 1 | C | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 17 | 1 | C | Holey shoe, or alligator relative abbr. |
| 18 | 1 | C | Small plant that blooms early in spring |
| 19 | 1 | C | Sing like Sinatra |
| 20 | 2 | F | Book with made-up stories |
| 21 | 1 | F | “Done” in Italian |
| 22 | 1 | F | Center of interest or activity, noun; adjust a camera to get a clear image, verb |
| 23 | 1 | F | Type face; in some churches, it holds water for baptism |
| 24 | 1 | F | What you cover with a sock |
| 25 | 1 | F | Military post (Lee or Dix in NJ, e.g.) |
| 26 | 1 | F | Resistance of objects moving over each other, pangram |
| 27 | 1 | F | Opposite of back; edge of a weather system |
| 28 | 2 | I | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 29 | 1 | I | Collection of facts and tips, abbr. |
| 30 | 1 | I | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 31 | 1 | I | Announce upcoming thing (next guest), or prelude (beginner’s course, book preface), slang abbr. |
| 32 | 1 | I | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 33 | 1 | I | Element Fe (number 26), or hot clothes presser, noun/verb |
| 34 | 1 | I | Wryly funny because it’s opposite to what’s expected (a fire station burns down, e.g,) |
| 35 | 1 | N | Slang abbr. for chem. used as explosive & heart med. |
| 36 | 1 | N | “Black” in French; or dark mystery genre (film…) |
| 37 | 1 | N | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 38 | 1 | N | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 39 | 1 | O | Veg that makes you cry when cut |
| 40 | 1 | O | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 41 | 1 | R | Civil unrest, noun; or to rampage, verb |
| 42 | 1 | R | Ornamental decorative style |
| 43 | 1 | R | Top of a house (where Santa lands) |
| 44 | 1 | R | Plant anchor that sucks up water |
| 45 | 1 | R | Indian flatbread that isn’t naan |
| 46 | 1 | R | Spiral pasta, fusilli |
| 47 | 1 | R | Device or blade that spins |
| 48 | 1 | T | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
| 49 | 1 | T | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car-…) |
| 50 | 1 | T | Short horn sound; noun/verb |
| 51 | 1 | T | Shinto shrine gate, NOT double plural of donut shapes |
| 52 | 1 | T | Ripped, adj. or past participle |
| 53 | 1 | T | Bull, Spanish |
| 54 | 1 | T | Legal wrong, NOT pastry |
| 55 | 1 | T | Italian ice cream with rum, almonds, & cherries |
| 56 | 2 | T | Donut shape |
| 57 | 1 | T | 3–brimmed hat |
| 58 | 1 | T | Fine-knitted fabric, from French “to knit” |
| 59 | 1 | T | Musical group of 3 (Kingston...) |
| 60 | 1 | T | Son of Poseidon, largest Neptune moon; mollusk with a tall spiral shell |
| 61 | 1 | T | Fast walking pace for horses or people |
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.