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 | AB | 5 | Surprised (taken …), adv. |
| 2 | 1 | AC | 4 | Muscle, heart, tooth, or tummy dull pain |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 5 | Archaic exclamation of regret or dismay; from list word for “absence of” |
| 4 | 1 | BA | 4 | Part of body containing your spine |
| 5 | 1 | BA | 8 | Dull pain in the part of your body containing your spine (compound) |
| 7 | 1 | BE | 4 | Gesture requesting attention; summons (at someone's … and call) |
| 6 | 1 | BE | 5 | Sandy shoreline |
| 8 | 1 | BE | 5 | Tree that’s a homophone of a sandy shoreline |
| 9 | 1 | BE | 5 | Burp |
| 10 | 1 | BL | 5 | Color that reflects no light; color of the 8-ball |
| 13 | 1 | BL | 5 | Slang exclamation of disgust (of something that makes you gag) |
| 12 | 1 | BL | 6 | Chlorine laundry whitener |
| 11 | 1 | BL | 9 | Exclude from membership, usually by secret ballot (compound) |
| 19 | 1 | CA | 4 | Baked dessert, often with layers and icing; traditional birthday party fare |
| 20 | 1 | CA | 4 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 14 | 1 | CA | 5 | Secret political faction |
| 16 | 1 | CA | 5 | Thick wire rope (… bridge), San Francisco trolley (… car), or insulated wire (power or USB …) |
| 17 | 1 | CA | 5 | Hidden stockpile, or computer temp memory storage to speed access |
| 21 | 1 | CA | 5 | Arum plant referred to as a lily |
| 15 | 1 | CA | 6 | Jewish mysticism; usually starts with K |
| 18 | 1 | CA | 6 | Make a harsh, raucous sound when laughing, verb/noun; (the witch …-d with delight as she stirred the potion) |
| 20 | 1 | CA | 8 | Phone, name, summon, or shout (out) |
| 22 | 1 | CA | 8 | Invitation to return for a second audition (compound) |
| 24 | 1 | CE | 4 | Prison “room,” or smallest unit of an organism |
| 23 | 1 | CE | 5 | Person who’s well-known, slang abbr. |
| 25 | 1 | CH | 5 | Soft white limestone that can be made into sticks for writing |
| 27 | 1 | CH | 5 | Bank draft, noun; or verify, verb |
| 28 | 1 | CH | 5 | Side of your face, noun; or sass (British) |
| 26 | 1 | CH | 7 | Jewish Sabbath braided egg bread |
| 27 | 1 | CH | 9 | Bank draft, noun; or verify, verb |
| 29 | 1 | CL | 5 | Heel sounds on tile, verb; or NPR “car” show guy 2 |
| 30 | 1 | EA | 4 | Every one, pronoun; or apiece, adv. |
| 31 | 1 | HA | 4 | Cut with rough or heavy blows; use a computer to gain unauthorized access, verb/noun |
| 31 | 1 | HA | 8 | Cut with rough or heavy blows; use a computer to gain unauthorized access, verb/noun |
| 32 | 1 | HE | 4 | Mild cuss (“… of a job, Brownie!”), euphemism for Satan’s domain |
| 33 | 1 | HE | 6 | Interrupt a public speaker with insults |
| 34 | 1 | LA | 4 | Frilly fabric, or shoestring |
| 35 | 1 | LA | 4 | Absence of (talent or imagination, e.g.), verb/noun |
| 37 | 1 | LE | 4 | Womanizer, derogatory slang abbr., or Polish president Wałęsa |
| 36 | 1 | LE | 5 | Dissolve out by percolating liquid, verb; or “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” host Robin |
| 38 | 1 | LE | 5 | Bloodsucking worm, noun; habitually exploit or rely on, verb |
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.