Solving a scrambled word
For a puzzle like a newspaper jumble or a cryptic crossword clue, you usually want the single word that uses all the letters. That’s the first row of results. If nothing comes up, check the letters (a doubled letter is easy to miss), or tick Rare words in Phrase settings to search the full list of about 240,000 words.
When you know some of the answer
Switch to Words in it and use the filters: Starts with, Ends with and Contains. A ? stands for any one letter, like a blank tile, so pl?nt finds plant and plint… and anything else that fits.
How it ranks answers
Words are graded from very common to rare using SCOWL, an English word list that sorts words into size levels by how widely they’re known. Common words show first and darker; rarer words follow in a lighter shade. The search runs on your device, which is why it’s instant after the first load.
Questions
- How does an anagram solver work?
- It sorts the letters of every word in a word list into alphabetical order. Two words are anagrams when their sorted letters match, so the solver sorts your letters and looks them up.
- Can I use a blank or wildcard?
- Yes. Type ? for each unknown letter, in Words in it or Anagrams.
- Is it a Scrabble dictionary?
- No. Official Scrabble word lists are copyrighted and differ by country. This uses SCOWL, a free general English list, so a few game-legal words may be missing and a few listed words may not be legal in your game.