Word Finder

When to use a word finder

Word finders help when you know part of the answer: a fixed length, letters that must appear, or letters that cannot. Combine filters the way you would narrow a paper dictionary—each filter you add removes far more words than it costs you in typing.

This is the tool to reach for when you are stuck on a crossword or word game and can describe the shape of the answer even if you cannot read it. You do not need the whole word; you need its length and a couple of fixed positions.

The three filters

• Length — the exact number of letters. On its own this is already the most powerful filter available.
• Pattern — known positions written as letters with blanks between them, for when crossing words have given you a few squares.
• Letters — the letters you know are in the answer, plus the ones you know are out. Both halves matter: excluding a letter is often what collapses a list of forty into a list of three.

Leaving everything blank will not list the entire dictionary. The search needs at least one filter so it can return a short, useful list instead of every word in the language.

Reading crossword crossings

The fastest way to use a pattern filter is to transcribe what the crossing words already give you. If two letters are confirmed and one square is blank, write the letters with a gap: A _ E S. Enter that as the pattern and you will get every word that could occupy the slot—then check each candidate against the crossing clue rather than the other way around.

Keep the exclusions honest. If you know for certain that the answer does not contain a particular letter, add it to the excluded set; a single excluded letter can remove hundreds of matches.

When the list is still long

If you have filtered down but still face a dozen candidates, switch the problem: read the clue again and look for the word class it implies. A clue that reads like a definition usually wants a noun; one that reads like an instruction usually wants a verb. Even without solving anything, knowing the part of speech lets you discard most of a list by eye.

If you are working from jumbled letters rather than a pattern, the Word Unscrambler is the better fit—it insists on an exact letter match instead of a subset.

More word tools

• Word Scrambler
• Word Unscrambler
• Anagram Solver
• Word Finder (this page)