How to use the word finder
- 1Fill in any of the boxes. Empty boxes are ignored, so one box is enough.
- 2Pick a length if the word has to fit a fixed number of squares.
- 3Press Find words. The list then updates as you type, grouped by length.
What each box does
| Box | Keeps words that | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Starts with | begin with these letters | "pre" finds prepare, press, pretty |
| Ends with | end with these letters | "ght" finds light, night, thought |
| Contains | have these letters side by side, in this order | "ough" finds tough, through, dough |
| Has letters | have each letter somewhere, in any order | "xz" finds words with an X and a Z |
| Leave out | have none of these letters | "aeiou" leaves words like rhythm and myth |
| Length | have exactly this many letters | 5 letters |
The boxes combine: Starts with "s", Ends with "y", Leave out "a" and Length 5 finds five-letter words like silly and sorry. Typing a letter twice in Has letters asks for at least two copies, so "ee" finds words with a double or a second E.
When another tool fits better
- To make words from the tiles on your rack, use the word unscrambler; it only shows words your letters can spell.
- When you know some letters at fixed positions, like the second and fifth of a crossword answer, the crossword solver matches a pattern square by square.
- For the daily five-letter guessing game, the five-letter word finder reads green, yellow and gray letters directly and suggests a next guess.
About the word list
The finder searches the 3of6game list from 12dicts by Alan Beale, which he released to the public domain and which its readme recommends for word games. The words come from advanced learner's dictionaries, with plurals and verb forms, and without names, abbreviations or hyphenated words. Both British and American spellings are in it. We kept words of 2 to 15 letters and took out slurs and the strongest swear words, leaving 64,236 words. Searching all of them takes a few milliseconds in a background thread of your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Contains and Has letters?
Contains looks for letters next to each other in that order: "ough" finds "tough" and "through". Has letters only asks that each letter appears somewhere in the word, in any order: "qz" finds words with both a Q and a Z. Type a letter twice in Has letters to ask for two copies of it.
How do I find words without certain letters?
Type them into Leave out. Every word that contains any of those letters is dropped. Combined with a length, this is handy for word games where some letters are already ruled out.
Can I search for words of one length only?
Yes. Pick a length from 2 to 15 letters in the Length menu. With Any length, the results are grouped by length from short to long.
Why is a word missing?
The finder searches one public domain list of about 64,000 common English words (12dicts 3of6game). Names, abbreviations, hyphenated words and many rare words are not in it, and words longer than 15 letters were left out.
Does the search run on a server?
No. The word list loads once from our site and the search runs in your browser. What you type stays on your device.