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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | DE | 4 | Michael’s computer company, or farmer locale in kid’s song |
| 3 | 1 | DE | 4 | Greek letter Δ-shaped upper arm & shoulder muscle, slang abbr. |
| 1 | 1 | DE | 6 | Erase (on a computer screen, e.g.) |
| 1 | 1 | DE | 7 | Erase (on a computer screen, e.g.) |
| 4 | 1 | DO | 4 | Pineapple brand, noun; or distribute (…out portions of food) |
| 5 | 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 6 | 1 | DO | 4 | Stupid person |
| 4 | 1 | DO | 5 | Pineapple brand, noun; or distribute (…out portions of food) |
| 8 | 1 | DO | 5 | Connecting or supporting peg or rod |
| 5 | 1 | DO | 6 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 7 | 1 | DO | 6 | Scribble or draw absentmindedly |
| 7 | 1 | DO | 7 | Scribble or draw absentmindedly |
| 9 | 2 | DW | 5 | Reside at, or linger over a worry |
| 9 | 1 | DW | 7 | Reside at, or linger over a worry |
| 10 | 1 | LE | 4 | Summary opening sentence or paragraph of a news article (bury the …); NOT "follow" antonym |
| 11 | 1 | LE | 4 | Allow someone to borrow from you (“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, … me your ears”) |
| 12 | 1 | LE | 4 | Pre–Easter holiday when you give up meat, noun; or “borrowed” counterpart, verb |
| 15 | 1 | LE | 4 | Obscene (behavior, usually) |
| 13 | 1 | LE | 5 | Slowly, in music & Italian |
| 14 | 1 | LE | 7 | Disappointment, or a nursing mother's release of milk |
| 16 | 1 | LO | 4 | Vein of metal ore (mother…) |
| 17 | 1 | LO | 4 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 18 | 1 | LO | 4 | Solitary (...wolf, e.g.), adj. |
| 19 | 1 | LO | 4 | “Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin |
| 20 | 1 | LO | 4 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 21 | 1 | LO | 5 | State-sponsored numbers betting ticket (Powerball, e.g.) |
| 22 | 1 | LO | 5 | Opposite of high; sound made by cattle |
| 17 | 1 | LO | 6 | Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue |
| 20 | 1 | LO | 6 | Pirate treasure, noun; or to steal during a riot, verb |
| 23 | 1 | LO | 7 | Slang compound adj. for mean & unfair (… dog), or noun for “inside info” (get the … on) |
| 26 | 1 | NE | 5 | Supporting post on a staircase or railing |
| 24 | 1 | NE | 6 | Tool to sew, noun; or goad, verb |
| 25 | 1 | NE | 6 | “Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb |
| 24 | 1 | NE | 7 | Tool to sew, noun; or goad, verb |
| 25 | 1 | NE | 7 | “Stinging” plant, noun; or to annoy, verb |
| 27 | 1 | NO | 4 | Xmas time, or playwright Coward |
| 28 | 1 | NO | 6 | Egg pasta (limp…), noun; or improvise or play casually on a musical instrument, present + past tense verbs |
| 28 | 1 | NO | 7 | Egg pasta (limp…), noun; or improvise or play casually on a musical instrument, present + past tense verbs |
| 30 | 1 | OL | 4 | Margarine |
| 29 | 1 | OL | 5 | Having lived for a long time |
| 31 | 1 | OW | 5 | Nocturnal bird that hoots |
| 32 | 1 | TE | 4 | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 33 | 1 | TE | 6 | Protocol for interacting (logging on, chatting) with remote computers |
| 35 | 1 | TO | 4 | Informed, notified, related a story; past tense verb |
| 36 | 1 | TO | 4 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 37 | 1 | TO | 4 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a ...box |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 5 | Cloth used to dry off after a shower |
| 34 | 1 | TO | 6 | Move with short unsteady steps while learning to walk |
| 36 | 1 | TO | 6 | Road use fee (collected at a booth) |
| 37 | 1 | TO | 6 | An implement (hammer & screwdriver, e.g.); often stored in a ...box |
| 38 | 1 | TO | 6 | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 34 | 1 | TO | 7 | Move with short unsteady steps while learning to walk |
| 38 | 1 | TO | 7 | Drive or move in a leisurely manner, or play gently or repeatedly on a flute |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 7 | Cloth used to dry off after a shower |
| 39 | 1 | TO | 9 | Cloth used to dry off after a shower |
| 40 | 1 | TW | 7 | Produce high-pitched, modulated sounds; or one of the twins …dee and …dum |
| 40 | 1 | TW | 8 | Produce high-pitched, modulated sounds; or one of the twins …dee and …dum |
| 41 | 1 | WE | 4 | Join metal with a blowtorch |
| 42 | 1 | WE | 4 | Hole in ground you draw water from |
| 43 | 1 | WE | 4 | Red, swollen mark on skin from a blow or allergic reaction |
| 41 | 1 | WE | 6 | Join metal with a blowtorch |
| 42 | 1 | WE | 6 | Hole in ground you draw water from |
| 43 | 1 | WE | 6 | Red, swollen mark on skin from a blow or allergic reaction |
| 44 | 1 | WO | 4 | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj. |
| 44 | 1 | WO | 6 | Warm, itchy knitted fabric made from sheep hair, noun/adj. |
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.