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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 1 | AL | 5 | Sound at high volume |
| 1 | 1 | AR | 5 | Passion (Latin “to burn”) |
| 2 | 1 | AR | 6 | Warship fleet (Spanish one defeated by England in 1588) |
| 3 | 1 | AR | 7 | As much as a person can hold in both upper limbs (compound) (Can you get the door? I’ve got an … of clothes) |
| 4 | 1 | DO | 4 | Extinct bird; or idiot, slang |
| 5 | 1 | DO | 4 | Small human figure toy such as Barbie, noun; or get all dressed up for a party, verb |
| 10 | 1 | DO | 4 | Terrible fate (they fell to their …), or pioneering 1st person shooter game |
| 11 | 1 | DO | 4 | Room or bldg. entrance |
| 12 | 1 | DO | 4 | Student housing abbr. + pangram noun (2 words) |
| 14 | 1 | DO | 4 | Gloomy appearance or manner |
| 7 | 1 | DO | 5 | Balkan meat & rice wrapped in leaves |
| 8 | 1 | DO | 5 | Literary term for a a state of great sorrow or distress (Spanish for pain), noun |
| 13 | 1 | DO | 5 | Woman who helps a mom through labor |
| 6 | 1 | DO | 6 | US currency |
| 9 | 1 | DO | 6 | Thingamajig, slang; ends in “father” nickname |
| 15 | 1 | DR | 4 | Scottish whisky serving size, ⅛ oz. |
| 19 | 1 | DR | 4 | Rhythm instrument you play with sticks, noun/verb |
| 16 | 1 | DR | 5 | Serious or exciting play, show, film, or events (Don’t be such a … queen!) |
| 17 | 1 | DR | 5 | Curious or unusual in a way that provokes amusement, adj. |
| 18 | 1 | DR | 5 | Spit leaking out of your mouth, noun/verb |
| 20 | 1 | DR | 8 | Prolonged sound on a rhythm instrument you play with sticks, often preceding an announcement (compound) |
| 21 | 1 | DU | 4 | Having two parts; NOT pistols at ten paces |
| 22 | 1 | DU | 4 | Not shiny, adjective/verb |
| 25 | 1 | DU | 5 | Hard wheat used in pasta |
| 24 | 1 | DU | 6 | Soft-nosed bullet that expands on impact, lollipop brand with a doubled name, or slang for stupid person |
| 23 | 1 | DU | 7 | Slow or stupid person |
| 26 | 1 | LA | 4 | Pig fat for cooking |
| 27 | 1 | LA | 4 | Praise, verb/noun |
| 28 | 1 | LO | 4 | A unit of laundry, noun; or to fill up a truck, verb |
| 29 | 1 | LO | 4 | ♂ version of “Lady” in nobility, or term for God |
| 30 | 1 | LO | 4 | Sound at high volume |
| 31 | 1 | MA | 5 | Term of respect for a ♀, or one who runs a brothel; palindrome |
| 33 | 1 | MA | 6 | Search for things to steal or people to attack (think pirates, gangs, or armies); from Old French "rascal" |
| 32 | 1 | MA | 7 | Common duck species, whose males have dark green heads and white collars |
| 40 | 1 | MA | 7 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 37 | 1 | MO | 4 | Fungal growth, or Jell–O shaper |
| 38 | 1 | MO | 4 | Emotional state (happy, angry, sad, etc.) |
| 34 | 1 | MO | 5 | Grammar, music, logic, stats, & textile adj., relating to structure as opposed to substance, e.g. |
| 36 | 1 | MO | 6 | In math, the operation of taking the remainder after division |
| 35 | 1 | MO | 7 | Standardized part or independent unit, in building construction, sofware, or spacecraft |
| 39 | 1 | MU | 7 | Where you take off your shoes after playing outside (compound) |
| 40 | 1 | OD | 4 | Bad smell (body …) |
| 41 | 1 | RA | 5 | Nickname of Cpl. O’Reilly in M.A.S.H., or Doppler weather sensor acronym |
| 42 | 1 | RA | 6 | Covered porch, or hotel brand |
| 43 | 1 | RA | 6 | Stick for loading a gun, or adj. for rigid posture (compound) |
| 44 | 1 | RO | 4 | Street ("Abbey …"), or “rocky …” ice cream flavor |
| 45 | 1 | RO | 4 | Large crucifix above altar, anagram of bldg. entrance |
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.