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 | Banded quartz, perhaps a toy marble |
| 2 | 1 | A | Person who acts on behalf of another person or group (secret …) |
| 3 | 1 | A | Shoelace tip protector |
| 4 | 3 | A | Pond scum |
| 5 | 1 | A | Claim without proof |
| 6 | 1 | A | Harp-playing winged heaven resident, or Xmas tree topper |
| 7 | 1 | A | They can be acute, right, or obtuse |
| 8 | 2 | E | A bald one is the national bird |
| 9 | 1 | E | Purple egg-shaped fruit, pangram |
| 10 | 1 | E | Graceful and stylish in appearance or manner |
| 11 | 1 | E | Commit to marry (with an …-ment ring) |
| 12 | 1 | G | Biden inauguration National Anthem singer |
| 13 | 1 | G | “Emergency!” paramedic, or alt spelling of a measuring dial missing a central “U” (fuel…) |
| 14 | 1 | G | A “herd” of geese |
| 15 | 1 | G | Formal ball or fundraiser (The Met…, e.g.) |
| 16 | 1 | G | Asian plant of the ginger family, widely used in cooking and medicine |
| 17 | 1 | G | Strong wind storm |
| 18 | 1 | G | Chief ore of lead |
| 19 | 1 | G | French flat fruit pie |
| 20 | 1 | G | Liver secretion, or bold behavior |
| 21 | 1 | G | Brave, heroic |
| 22 | 1 | G | Group of thugs ("Working on the Chain..."), noun/verb |
| 23 | 2 | G | Stare open-mouthed |
| 24 | 1 | G | Hinged barrier, or airplane boarding area |
| 25 | 1 | G | (Smucker’s) fruit preserve, or cosmetic cream, French spelling (with 3 E’s) |
| 26 | 1 | G | Yiddish for $, bet during dreidel game |
| 27 | 1 | G | DNA sequence that determines traits, or singing cowboy Autry |
| 28 | 1 | G | ♂ counterpart to “lady,” slang abbr. |
| 29 | 1 | G | Polite, refined, or respectable |
| 30 | 1 | G | Tender (… caress or touch), moderate, or soft |
| 31 | 1 | G | Gather info from various sources, or take leftover grain after a harvest |
| 32 | 1 | G | Delight, choir (...club), or TV show about a HS choir |
| 33 | 1 | G | Narrow valley, or Eagles singer Frey |
| 34 | 1 | G | Tiny flying insect |
| 35 | 1 | L | Law adj. (not forbidden by law) |
| 36 | 1 | L | General or governor of an ancient Roman province, or their deputy; or a member of the clergy, esp. a cardinal, representing the Pope |
| 37 | 1 | N | Nullify; make ineffective |
| 38 | 1 | P | Heathen; worshiper of the old gods (…rituals) |
| 39 | 1 | P | Book leaf, noun; or summon with a beeper or announcement, verb |
| 40 | 1 | P | Entertainment consisting of a procession of people in elaborate, colorful costumes; or beauty contest |
| 41 | 1 | P | Stab of emotion (… of guilt or regret) |
| 42 | 1 | P | Loud, reverberating, and often melancholy sound |
| 43 | 1 | T | Strong taste, flavor, or smell; astronaut orange juice |
| 44 | 1 | T | Completely different line of thought or action (sometimes I go off on a …); (math) a line or plane that approximates a curve or surface at a point |
| 45 | 2 | T | Twist together into a confused mass, verb/noun |
| 46 | 1 | T | Between twelve and twenty |
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.