How to use the word unscrambler
Type the letters you have into the box — capitals, lower case and even accented letters all work, and anything that is not a letter is ignored. Each result is a real word that can be spelt from those tiles without using any letter more often than you have it. Results are grouped by length with the longest words first, because in most word games length is where the points are.
For a blank tile, type ?, * or a space. A blank can stand for any letter, up to three blanks per search. Letters that a word needs a blank for are shown with a dotted underline, and they add nothing to the score — exactly as in Scrabble and Words With Friends, where a blank is worth zero wherever it goes.
Words that use every one of your tiles are outlined. In Scrabble that is a bingo: playing all seven tiles in one turn earns a 50-point bonus (35 in Words With Friends), so the outlined words are usually the ones worth looking at first. If you only want those, switch to Anagrams, which lists nothing but full-length words.
Filters, patterns and sorting
Open Filters when the board limits what you can play. Starts with and ends with are for hooking onto a letter already on the board; contains finds words that run through a letter group such as QU or ING. Pattern fixes letters in place: _A__E means five letters, A second and E last. Filters also work with no letters typed at all, which turns the tool into a crossword helper for the whole dictionary.
There are three ways to sort. Score puts the highest-scoring words first using the letter values of the game you choose. Common first ranks words by how often they appear in ordinary English, which is what you want for Wordle, anagram puzzles and newspaper jumbles, where the answer is almost always an everyday word. A–Z is plain alphabetical order.
| Letter | Scrabble | Words With Friends |
|---|---|---|
| E A I O R S T | 1 | 1 |
| L N U | 1 | 2 |
| D | 2 | 2 |
| G | 2 | 3 |
| B C M P | 3 | 4 |
| H | 4 | 3 |
| F W | 4 | 4 |
| Y | 4 | 3 |
| V | 4 | 5 |
| K | 5 | 5 |
| J | 8 | 10 |
| X | 8 | 8 |
| Q Z | 10 | 10 |
The scores shown are face values. Premium squares on the board (double and triple letter or word) multiply them further, and depend on where you play.
Using the Wordle helper
Wordle gives three kinds of clue, and the helper takes each one the way the game means it. Put a green letter in the box for its position. Put a yellow letter in the box for the position where it turned yellow — the helper then knows the letter is in the word but not in that spot. If a letter has been yellow in two different spots, type it in both boxes. Type every grey letter into the last box.
Repeated letters are where most Wordle helpers go wrong. If you guess a word with two Es and one comes back green while the other is grey, the answer has exactly one E. The helper handles this: a letter that is both grey and green (or yellow) is limited to exactly the number of times it showed as coloured. Under the list you will see a few suggested next guesses — the remaining candidates whose letters are spread across the most other candidates, so whichever colours come back, they rule out the most words.
Wordle answers are everyday words, so the helper starts on the Everyday English dictionary. Switch to All words if you are playing a variant that allows obscure words.
Which dictionary does it use?
Two open word lists are combined into about 272,000 words. The core is SCOWL (Spell Checker Oriented Word Lists), the list behind many spell checkers, which grades every word by how common it is and marks British and American spellings — so both colour and color are found, and you can hide the one you don't want. On top of that sits a word-game list of around 275,000 entries that adds the short, strange words that board-game players rely on, such as QI, ZA, XU and QAT.
All words searches everything, which suits Scrabble, Words With Friends and Bananagrams. Everyday English keeps only the graded SCOWL words in UK or US spelling, which suits Wordle, crosswords and anagram puzzles. Tournament play uses licensed lists — Collins Scrabble Words outside North America and the NASPA Word List in the US and Canada — which nobody may republish freely. Our lists overlap them very heavily but not perfectly, so for a challenged word in a club game, check the official list your club uses.
The dictionary is a single file of about 1.4 MB (roughly 500 KB compressed) that your browser downloads the first time you search and then keeps. Every search after that runs on your own device, which is why results appear as you type. Proper nouns, abbreviations and hyphenated words are left out, as they are in word games. For counting the words in your own writing, the word counter is the tool you want, and the reverse text page checks palindromes. More writing tools are on the text tools page.
Frequently asked questions
How do I use a blank tile in the word unscrambler?
Type a question mark, an asterisk or a space for each blank, up to three of them. The unscrambler then finds words that need one of those extra letters. Letters that a result needs a blank for are shown with a dotted underline and are not counted in its score, because a blank is worth zero points in both Scrabble and Words With Friends.
What is the difference between Unscramble and Anagrams?
Unscramble lists every word you can make from some or all of your letters, from two letters up. Anagrams lists only the words that use every letter exactly once — the answer to a jumble puzzle, or a Scrabble bingo. In the Unscramble results, the words that use every tile are outlined so you can spot them without switching modes.
Are these words allowed in Scrabble?
Most are, but not all. The All words setting combines two large open word lists that overlap the official tournament lists very heavily. Official play uses Collins Scrabble Words or the NASPA Word List, which are licensed and cannot be republished freely, so if a word is challenged in a club or tournament game, check it against the list your club uses.
Why do some words look unfamiliar?
Word-game lists include thousands of rare words, such as short ones like QI, ZA and XU that experienced players use for points. If you only want words people actually use, choose Everyday English in the dictionary menu, or sort by Common first so familiar words rise to the top. Words that are only in the word-game list are shown slightly faded.
How does the Wordle helper handle repeated letters?
It follows Wordle's own colour rules. A green or yellow letter must appear at least as many times as it was coloured. If the same letter also came back grey in that guess, the answer contains it exactly that many times and no more. Letters that are only grey are excluded completely. Yellow letters are also banned from the spot where they turned yellow.
Does the word unscrambler send my letters anywhere?
No. The first time you search, your browser downloads the word list from this site — the same file for everyone — and every search after that runs on your own device. Your letters are not sent to a server, and the page keeps working without a connection once the list has loaded. The letters do appear in the page address so you can share a search.