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. The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here
Table content
| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AC | 5 | Nut from an oak tree |
| 2 | 1 | AN | 4 | Soon, poetically |
| 20 | 1 | AN | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 3 | 1 | AR | 6 | 1 of 2 classes in a tarot pack (major & minor), a mystery or deep secret, or specialized knowledge, noun |
| 4 | 1 | AR | 6 | Yellow daisy used to treat bruises |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 5 | Pile of commemorative stones, or terrier (dog) breed |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 9 | 1 | CA | 5 | Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 8 | 1 | CA | 6 | Wheeled artillery |
| 10 | 1 | CA | 7 | Decaying animal flesh |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 14 | 1 | CO | 4 | Veg on a cob |
| 13 | 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 15 | 1 | CO | 6 | Upper part of the sun's atmosphere |
| 17 | 1 | CR | 5 | Hum or sing in a soft, low voice, especially in a sentimental manner (think Sinatra or Bublé) |
| 16 | 1 | CR | 6 | Scientific name for skull |
| 18 | 1 | CZ | 7 | Title of a russian monarch |
| 19 | 1 | IC | 4 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 19 | 1 | IC | 6 | Symbol (you tap on phone screen, e.g.) |
| 20 | 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 21 | 1 | IR | 4 | Element Fe (atomic number 26), or hot clothes presser, noun/verb |
| 22 | 1 | IR | 6 | Wryly funny because it’s opposite to what’s expected (a fire station burns down, e.g,) |
| 23 | 1 | NA | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 24 | 1 | NA | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 25 | 1 | NA | 4 | Drug cop, slang |
| 26 | 1 | NA | 5 | Drug dealer, old-fashioned slang |
| 27 | 1 | NI | 6 | Vitamin B3 |
| 28 | 1 | NO | 4 | “Black” in French; or dark mystery genre (film …) |
| 29 | 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 30 | 1 | OC | 7 | Small egg-shaped wind instrument |
| 31 | 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut |
| 33 | 1 | RA | 4 | Liquid precipitation |
| 35 | 1 | RA | 4 | Hindu queen, anagram of liquid precipitation |
| 34 | 1 | RA | 6 | Bitterness or resentfulness, especially when long-standing |
| 32 | 1 | RA | 7 | Mammal with a mask |
| 36 | 1 | RI | 5 | Poison from castor beans, NOT a pilaf grain |
| 37 | 1 | RO | 4 | Horse with 2–colored coat |
| 38 | 1 | ZI | 4 | The US penny is now 97.5% this metal, element 30, which is also mixed with copper to make brass |
| 39 | 1 | ZI | 6 | Sunflower within the daisy family (what other flower starts with Z?) |
| 40 | 1 | ZI | 6 | Crystal that is the main source of element Zr (atomic number 40) |
| 40 | 1 | ZI | 8 | Crystal that is the main source of element Zr (atomic number 40) |
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.