How to unscramble words
- Type your letters into Your letters, in any order. Capitals and spaces do not matter, and you can use up to 15 letters.
- If you have a blank tile, or one letter you do not know, type ? or * (or press the ? button). A blank can stand for any letter.
- Choose All words to see every word you can make from some or all of the letters, or Exact anagrams (all letters) to see only words that use every letter once.
- Narrow the list if you need to: set a Minimum length and Maximum length (the same number for one exact length), or type letters into Starts with, Ends with or Contains.
- Press Find words (results also update as you type). Words are grouped by length, longest first, with a count per group; letters filled in by a blank are highlighted. Click a word to copy it.
How the anagram solver works
Two words are anagrams when they contain exactly the same letters the same number of times: listen, silent, enlist and tinsel all have one each of e, i, l, n, s and t. So the solver does not try every ordering of your letters (twelve letters have nearly half a billion). It counts how many of each letter you have and checks each word in the list against those counts. A word fits if it never needs more of a letter than you have; each shortfall uses up one blank, and a word that needs more blanks than you typed is skipped. A quick check of which letters a word contains rules out most of the list first, so even 12 letters with two blanks take a fraction of a second.
In exact anagram mode, a word must also be as long as all your letters and blanks together, which means every letter is used. Starts with, ends with and contains only filter the results; they do not add extra letters, so those letters must be in your set (or come from a blank).
Tips to unscramble words in your head
- Look for common endings first. Set aside -ing, -ed, -er, -est, -ly, -tion or a plural -s, then unscramble what is left. With gnitser, pulling out -ing leaves rtse, which spells rest, so the word is resting (the same letters also make stinger).
- Try common beginnings. re-, un-, in-, dis-, pre- and over- start many longer words.
- Pair up consonants that often go together: th, ch, sh, st, tr, bl, ck, qu. A q almost always needs a u.
- Alternate consonants and vowels. Many English words follow a consonant-vowel rhythm (CVC, CVCV), so placing vowels between consonant groups is a good first guess.
Who it is for
It helps with crossword and cryptic anagram clues, letter-tile games and newspaper word puzzles. Teachers can check spelling lists or build letter challenges for a class, with the random number generator or the spin the wheel picker to choose teams and turns. Writers use anagrams for character names and wordplay, and the word counter checks the length of the finished text. For another kind of word practice, try the typing test and our guide to a good typing speed.
About the word list and its limits
The solver uses the ENABLE word list (Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon), compiled by Alan Beale and M. Cooper and released into the public domain. We kept the words of 2 to 15 letters, about 168,000 of them, and removed a short list of slurs and the strongest swear words. ENABLE is a North American list, but it includes many British spellings too, such as colour, centre and realise. It has no proper nouns (names of people, places or brands), no abbreviations, no hyphenated words and no single-letter words. Every game and dictionary accepts a slightly different set of words, so check the official rules when a word matters for scoring, and expect some rare or archaic words in the results.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. The word list is downloaded once from this site (about 240 KB compressed) the first time you use the tool, and your letters are never sent anywhere or stored. Nothing is saved in your browser's storage.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a word unscrambler and an anagram solver?
An anagram uses all the letters exactly once, while unscrambling usually means finding any word you can make from some of the letters. This tool does both: All words lists every word from your letters, and Exact anagrams lists only the words that use every letter.
How do I use a blank or wildcard?
Type ? or * for each blank, for example ca? to find cab, can, cap, car and cat. Each blank stands for any one letter, and the letters it fills in are highlighted. Several blanks work too, but give long lists.
How do I find 5-letter words with these letters?
Type your letters, then set both Minimum length and Maximum length to 5. Only 5-letter words that can be made from your letters are shown. Add a letter under Starts with, Ends with or Contains to narrow it further.
Why is a word I know missing?
It may be a proper noun, an abbreviation, longer than 15 letters or simply not in the ENABLE list. Also check that you typed every letter: the solver never uses a letter more often than you entered it.
Is this word unscrambler free?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and works on phones, tablets and computers.
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