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 | BI | 5 | Game with a number sheet, marker, & a number caller |
| 1 | 1 | BI | 6 | Important person (informal, compound) |
| 2 | 1 | BI | 7 | Receptacle for storing a specified substance, noun/verb; trash can (British) |
| 3 | 1 | BI | 7 | Overindulge (…-watch Netflix); verb/noun |
| 11 | 1 | BO | 4 | Water pipe for smoking weed, or sound of a large bell |
| 15 | 1 | BO | 4 | Breast, slang |
| 17 | 1 | BO | 4 | Favor, poetic (grant me a …), noun |
| 18 | 1 | BO | 4 | Lout, NOT wild pig |
| 20 | 1 | BO | 4 | Existing as a result of birth, adj. (Biden was … in Scranton) |
| 8 | 1 | BO | 5 | Sound of a spring or jack-in-the-box, noun |
| 12 | 1 | BO | 5 | Paired small drum held between the knees; add a vowel to end of above |
| 21 | 1 | BO | 5 | Element 5 |
| 6 | 1 | BO | 6 | Sewing machine thread holder |
| 9 | 1 | BO | 6 | Candy, or 2X “good" in French |
| 10 | 1 | BO | 6 | Skeleton part, or what dogs chew & bury; study intensely |
| 13 | 1 | BO | 6 | Small ape related to chimps |
| 14 | 1 | BO | 6 | Express disapproval at a game, verb; what ghosts say |
| 16 | 1 | BO | 6 | “Owie” you kiss & make better, mistake, or what 2 ghosts say |
| 19 | 1 | BO | 6 | Drill a hole, verb; or the diameter of a rifle barrel, noun; or be dull and uninteresting, verb |
| 22 | 1 | BO | 6 | Use something with the intention of returning it; use money with an obligation to pay it back |
| 23 | 1 | BO | 6 | Bend at the waist, especially to acknowledge applause |
| 24 | 1 | BO | 6 | Rhyming compound bark of a cartoon dog |
| 5 | 1 | BO | 7 | Make a quick short movement up and down (… for apples); short haircut for women |
| 7 | 1 | BO | 7 | Wet muddy ground too soft to support something heavy; become stuck in such a place, verb (negotiations …ed down) |
| 22 | 1 | BO | 9 | Use something with the intention of returning it; use money with an obligation to pay it back |
| 26 | 1 | BR | 4 | Prison, especially on a warship |
| 29 | 1 | BR | 4 | Vigor, Italian; often used in music as “allegro con …” |
| 30 | 1 | BR | 4 | Forehead |
| 28 | 1 | BR | 5 | Lead, carry, or cause to come along with you |
| 31 | 1 | BR | 5 | Color of nuts or dark wood |
| 25 | 1 | BR | 7 | Persuade someone to do something, by means of an illegal gift of money |
| 27 | 1 | BR | 7 | Soak food in very salty water before cooking |
| 28 | 1 | BR | 8 | Lead, carry, or cause to come along with you |
| 31 | 1 | BR | 8 | Color of nuts or dark wood |
| 32 | 1 | GI | 6 | Another small ape related to chimps, or “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire” author; noun |
| 33 | 1 | GI | 6 | Insulting or mocking remark, noun/verb |
| 20 | 1 | IN | 6 | Existing as a result of birth, adj. (Biden was … in Scranton) |
| 34 | 1 | NO | 4 | Beginner, gamer slang |
| 36 | 1 | RI | 6 | Long, narrow strip of fabric |
| 35 | 1 | RI | 7 | Curved bone, part of the chest |
| 36 | 1 | RI | 9 | Long, narrow strip of fabric |
| 39 | 1 | RO | 5 | Worm-hunting bird with a red breast |
| 38 | 1 | RO | 6 | Long, loose outer garment (bath…) |
| 37 | 1 | RO | 7 | Steal from |
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.