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, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | CO | 4 | Metal $, noun; or come up with a new phrase, verb |
| 6 | 1 | CO | 5 | Ice cream holder shape |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 5 | Tally, verb; or title for Dracula & Monte Cristo, noun |
| 2 | 1 | CO | 6 | Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb |
| 3 | 1 | CO | 6 | Burial box |
| 7 | 1 | CO | 6 | Duck or other meat cooked & preserved in its own fat, French |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 6 | Soft fabric or its plant source |
| 1 | 1 | CO | 7 | Tropical fruit in Mounds & Piña Colada |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 7 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 5 | 1 | CO | 10 | Create a mixed drink, potion, or wild story |
| 13 | 1 | FI | 6 | “Done” in Italian |
| 12 | 1 | FI | 7 | Book with made-up stories |
| 15 | 1 | FO | 4 | Type face; in some churches, it holds water for baptism |
| 16 | 1 | FO | 5 | (Literary) source (of knowledge or water, e.g.) |
| 18 | 1 | FU | 5 | Japanese mattress, or sofa that can be unfolded into a bed |
| 17 | 1 | FU | 8 | Purpose, math expression, or “work properly” as a verb; pangram |
| 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 | IN | 4 | Collection of facts and tips, abbr. |
| 21 | 1 | IN | 4 | Enter (go … the room), preposition |
| 22 | 1 | IN | 6 | TurboTax company, or know by feeling rather than evidence |
| 22 | 1 | IN | 9 | TurboTax company, or know by feeling rather than evidence |
| 23 | 1 | IO | 5 | Atom or molecule with a net electric charge |
| 24 | 1 | NO | 4 | 12:00, midday, 🕛 |
| 26 | 1 | NO | 4 | In grammar, a person, place or thing |
| 25 | 1 | NO | 6 | Vague idea, or small sewing accessory |
| 12 | 1 | NO | 10 | Book with made-up stories |
| 28 | 1 | ON | 4 | Preposition when mounting an animal or boarding a large vehicle |
| 27 | 1 | ON | 5 | Veg that makes you cry when cut (for some, this is the "dreaded root veg") |
| 30 | 1 | TI | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 29 | 1 | TI | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 32 | 1 | TO | 4 | Animated film or character, slang abbr. (car-…) |
| 31 | 1 | TO | 5 | Carbonated water often mixed with gin |
| 34 | 1 | TU | 5 | Upper body garment in a uniform or in ancient Greece & Rome |
| 33 | 1 | TU | 7 | College fee |
| 37 | 1 | UN | 4 | Something whole on its own but part of larger thing (apartment, Army squad, e.g.) |
| 38 | 1 | UN | 4 | Archaic preposition (Handel’s Messiah “For … us a child is born”) |
| 11 | 1 | UN | 5 | Divide into pieces with a knife or other sharp implement, verb/noun |
| 14 | 1 | UN | 5 | Of suitable quality (all the news that's ... to print), adj.; be of the right shape and size, verb/noun |
| 36 | 1 | UN | 5 | Labor org. (Teamsters, AFL-CIO) |
| 10 | 1 | UN | 6 | End of shirt sleeve or pant leg |
| 35 | 1 | UN | 7 | Priestly anointing with oil; “extreme” on deathbed |
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.