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 | Garlic mayonnaise, from French for garlic |
| 4 | 1 | A | Large semiaquatic reptile, that humans sometimes wrestle |
| 5 | 1 | A | Opera solo |
| 6 | 1 | A | Seed covering |
| 7 | 2 | A | Large open-air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building, common in ancient Roman houses; an upper cavity of the heart |
| 8 | 1 | A | Congratulations for a young ♀ (slang) |
| 9 | 1 | G | A person's way of walking, or an animal’s pace (esp. horse); NOT a hinged fence opening |
| 10 | 1 | G | Male escort; Richard Gere “American …” film |
| 11 | 1 | G | Coat with element Au, atomic no. 79 |
| 12 | 1 | G | Fish breathing organ |
| 13 | 1 | G | Encircle with a belt |
| 14 | 1 | G | Young ♀ |
| 15 | 2 | G | Nervous system connective tissue “cell,” (anagram of venomous lizard “monster”) |
| 16 | 1 | G | Large primate (800-pound …) |
| 17 | 1 | G | Cup that the Round Table knights tried to find (The Holy …) |
| 18 | 1 | G | BBQ cooker; or interrogate, slang |
| 19 | 1 | G | Wandering West African storyteller |
| 20 | 1 | G | Small loose particles of stone or sand, or courage & resolve; “True …” 1969 & 2010 Western |
| 21 | 1 | I | Ice house |
| 22 | 1 | I | 9th Greek letter, I; or extremely small amount |
| 23 | 1 | L | Animal or criminal den |
| 24 | 1 | L | Cowboy rope |
| 25 | 1 | L | Someone who doesn’t tell the truth |
| 26 | 1 | L | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 27 | 1 | L | Singsong accent |
| 28 | 1 | L | ₺ or ₤, Turkish or old Italian $ |
| 29 | 1 | L | What a lawyer does with a lawsuit |
| 30 | 1 | L | Part of a lake or ocean near the coast |
| 31 | 1 | O | Mixture, or spicy Spanish stew, NOT margarine |
| 32 | 1 | O | Religious music for orchestra & voice (Handel’s Messiah, e.g.) |
| 33 | 1 | O | Scientific term for ear pain |
| 34 | 1 | R | What a train travels on, or what you hold on stairs |
| 35 | 1 | R | Indian yogurt veg dip |
| 36 | 1 | R | Proportion in math (Golden …, e.g.) |
| 37 | 1 | R | Rodent hind appendage, fish, or hair style; compound |
| 38 | 1 | R | $ in Iran, Oman, & Yemen |
| 39 | 1 | R | Thoroughness or stiffness (… mortis) |
| 40 | 1 | R | Small stream |
| 41 | 1 | R | Civil unrest, noun; or to rampage, verb |
| 42 | 1 | R | Stir up mud or trouble (…-ed the waters) |
| 43 | 1 | R | Indian flatbread that isn’t naan |
| 44 | 1 | R | Break up soil using a …–ER cultivator device with spinning blades |
| 45 | 1 | T | Boreal or snow coniferous forest biome of high northern latitudes |
| 46 | 1 | T | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 47 | 1 | T | Someone who fits clothes |
| 48 | 1 | T | Ankle bone |
| 49 | 1 | T | Jeweled, ornamental ½ crown |
| 50 | 1 | T | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 51 | 2 | T | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 52 | 1 | T | Work hard (… away, trying to find the last few Spelling Bee words) |
| 53 | 1 | T | Shinto shrine gate, NOT double plural of donut shapes |
| 54 | 1 | T | Thin, circular unleavened flatbread, used in Mexican cooking |
| 55 | 1 | T | Donut shape |
| 56 | 1 | T | Forest path, noun; follow or fall behind, verb |
| 57 | 1 | T | Characteristic, often genetically determined (left-handedness, e.g.) |
| 58 | 1 | T | Benedict Arnold, e.g. |
| 59 | 1 | T | Italian restaurant with simple food |
| 60 | 1 | T | Courtroom proceeding |
| 61 | 1 | T | Study of angles in math, slang abbr. (sine, tangent, e.g.) |
| 62 | 1 | T | Vibratory sound, Star Trek symbiotic species (Dax, e.g.), or how Spanish say “R” |
| 63 | 1 | T | Musical group of 3 (Kingston...) |
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.