GamePlay: An -ED Education
Some Spelling Bee solvers dislike the Bees that include I+N+G or E+D, perhaps thinking that the are too easy, or not interesting enough. Others love these "suffix" Bees. And they show up with some regularity: In 2025, the letters I+N+G (suffix -ING) appeared in 63 of 365 puzzles (17.25%); in 2024, I+N+G appeared in 52 of 366 puzzles (14.21%), as shown in this LexiConnexxions report on these letter groups in the Bee lexicon.
While it’s true that a solver can easily generate words by adding suffixes such as -ING or -ED (with words such as play, playing, played), the presence of these letter groups can also present some unique solving challenges. This is especially true when E+D are in the letter set, because to solve an “-ED” Bee, a solver must think “outside” the Bee, in two important ways.
The Spelling Bee of November 10, 2026, with letter set I D E F L O P and pangram FLIPFLOPPED, offers a good example of how thinking “outside” the Bee can help a solver complete the puzzle. Of the 70 words in this Bee’s solution set, 29 are past tense verbs or adjectives that are formed by adding the -ED suffix to a root word, as shown here:
The Spelling Bee of November 10, 2026, with letter set I D E F L O P and pangram FLIPFLOPPED, offers a good example of how thinking “outside” the Bee can help a solver complete the puzzle. Of the 70 words in this Bee’s solution set, 29 are past tense verbs or adjectives that are formed by adding the -ED suffix to a root word, as shown here:
Of those 29 words, only 16 are made simply by affixing the -ED suffix to a root word that is also in the solution set. These are the easiest -ED words to find and make:
defile / defileddiddle / diddledelide / elidedfiddle / fiddledfield / fieldedfife / fifedfile / filedfill / filledflip / flippedflipflop / flipfloppedfoil / foiledidle / idledpiddle / piddledpile / piledpill / pilledpipe / piped
The other 13 -ED words – all essential to fully solving this Bee – can be made only by thinking “outside” the Bee and “seeing” words that are not possible in this puzzle, in two important ways. How?
First: “See” the impossible short words. Seven answers are formed by adding -ED to root words that have only two or three letters, none of which can be in the Bee because all Bee words are at least four letters long. A successful solver must “see” those impossible root words – die, dip, fly, lie, lip, oil, pie – in order to find died, dipped flied, lied, lipped, oiled, and pied.
Second: “See” the invisible Y. Seven answers are formed by adding -ED to root words that end with Y, which is not in this letter set at all. A successful solver must “see” defy, deify, dolly, eddy, edify, fly, and ply in order to find defied, deified, dollied, eddied, edified, flied, and plied. (Two of these -Y words – fly and ply – are also in the list of three-letter roots, of course.) Solvers must remember to think of shorter words that can’t be in the Bee in order to form words that must be found in order to solve the Bee.
So, -ED is not as straightforward as it might appear.
Bonus solving strategy: In a puzzle with E+D, keep an eye on your growing answer list to see if you can add -ED to any word you’ve already found, or remove -ED if you happened to find that form first.
defile / defileddiddle / diddledelide / elidedfiddle / fiddledfield / fieldedfife / fifedfile / filedfill / filledflip / flippedflipflop / flipfloppedfoil / foiledidle / idledpiddle / piddledpile / piledpill / pilledpipe / piped
The other 13 -ED words – all essential to fully solving this Bee – can be made only by thinking “outside” the Bee and “seeing” words that are not possible in this puzzle, in two important ways. How?
First: “See” the impossible short words. Seven answers are formed by adding -ED to root words that have only two or three letters, none of which can be in the Bee because all Bee words are at least four letters long. A successful solver must “see” those impossible root words – die, dip, fly, lie, lip, oil, pie – in order to find died, dipped flied, lied, lipped, oiled, and pied.
Second: “See” the invisible Y. Seven answers are formed by adding -ED to root words that end with Y, which is not in this letter set at all. A successful solver must “see” defy, deify, dolly, eddy, edify, fly, and ply in order to find defied, deified, dollied, eddied, edified, flied, and plied. (Two of these -Y words – fly and ply – are also in the list of three-letter roots, of course.) Solvers must remember to think of shorter words that can’t be in the Bee in order to form words that must be found in order to solve the Bee.
So, -ED is not as straightforward as it might appear.
Bonus solving strategy: In a puzzle with E+D, keep an eye on your growing answer list to see if you can add -ED to any word you’ve already found, or remove -ED if you happened to find that form first.
If you cite information from this LexiConnexxions report, please give credit and a link to this page. These reports and analyses are compiled and prepared by a human being, not a machine. Thank you.
ESSENTIAL SPELLING BEE RESOURCES
The Spelling Bee Puzzlehttps://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/spelling-bee
The Spelling Bee Forumhttps://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/spelling-bee-forum
Glossary of Spelling Bee Termshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/crosswords/spelling-bee-forum-introduction.html
Spelling Bee Buddyhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/upshot/spelling-bee-buddy.htmlAn interactive tool that provides personalized hints and statistics for your daily Spelling Bee solve.
New York Times Help page for Spelling Beehttps://help.nytimes.com/23675493312404-Spelling-Bee
New York Times Help page for all gameshttps://help.nytimes.com/360011158491-New-York-Times-Games
Suggest a word for Spelling BeeWithin the Bee puzzle, open the "More" dropdown and choose "Suggest a Word. This links to form by which players may suggest words to be included in the Bee. A direct link is here: https://nyti.ms/4pG5SOFPlayers may also email their suggestions to buzzwords@nytimes.com, especially if they wish to include more information than the form allows.
Provide feedback to the New York Times about Spelling Beehttps://iteratehq.com/nytimes/6776de5d8b6862943a0fb831
The Spelling Bee Forumhttps://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/spelling-bee-forum
Glossary of Spelling Bee Termshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/crosswords/spelling-bee-forum-introduction.html
Spelling Bee Buddyhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/upshot/spelling-bee-buddy.htmlAn interactive tool that provides personalized hints and statistics for your daily Spelling Bee solve.
New York Times Help page for Spelling Beehttps://help.nytimes.com/23675493312404-Spelling-Bee
New York Times Help page for all gameshttps://help.nytimes.com/360011158491-New-York-Times-Games
Suggest a word for Spelling BeeWithin the Bee puzzle, open the "More" dropdown and choose "Suggest a Word. This links to form by which players may suggest words to be included in the Bee. A direct link is here: https://nyti.ms/4pG5SOFPlayers may also email their suggestions to buzzwords@nytimes.com, especially if they wish to include more information than the form allows.
Provide feedback to the New York Times about Spelling Beehttps://iteratehq.com/nytimes/6776de5d8b6862943a0fb831