This page provides some dictionary scanning utilities to help with solving word based puzzles such as crosswords, 'focus words' (where you find all the possible words using a number of given letters, one of which must be included) and the like. Submit a query from one of the query forms on the left and the results are displayed in this area on the right, replacing these instructions.
Source Words The standard word list used by this facility contains about 121,000 English words, not generally including proper nouns or obscure words. The Extended 'more liberal' word list contains around 255,000 words, including proper nouns and many obscure words not in general English usage which sometimes clutter up the results with unusable 'rubbish'. They are both text file word lists, not searches of online dictionaries. Both word lists contain abbreviations acronyms and other non-words which may be included in the answers to your query - decide yourself what is acceptable and ignore the 'rubbish'. If your query does not return a suitable word, select the extended dictionary and try again.
FillWord Search Finds words matching a given number of characters using the pattern mask entered. Unknown characters can be entered as a period '.' with other characters in upper or lower case. There are no other wild card characters for Fillword. Useful for normal crosswords when the length of a word and some of the letters are known.
Example pattern mask: 'a.s..r.'
FindWords Search Given a set of letters, finds all words which can be made using them, using each specified character at most once. Specific letters may be included more than once. A 'required letter' from the given set may optionally be specified which must be in all words, and the minimum length of result words can be set (default 4). Results include a list of words without a trailing 's' (non-plurals). Useful to get solutions to common 'focus word' type puzzles as just described.
Example Letter Set: 'odrscorsw', Required letter: 'o', Min Length: 3.
Anagrams Search Given a set of possible letters and a pattern mask to match, returns possible words. Essentially a combination of FindWords and FillWord, but with a slightly more flexible pattern mask: '.' matches any letter, and '*' on the end of the pattern matches any number and combination of unused letters (including none) - thus potentially finding different length words. Useful for solving anagrams where the letters to be used is ambiguous (put them all in and try it) and when there is more than one separate word in the answer.
Boggle Board Solutions Given a string of 16 letters representing a 4x4 Boggle Board, displays the list of words that fit the board along with the score for each word. The Boggle Board string must be exactly 16 letters 'A'-'Z' (either case) which represent the die faces showing, in row major order. Where the board shows the face 'Qu' only the 'Q' is to be entered here. The solution finder will automatically insert the additional optional 'U' after 'Q' in its search for words which fit the board. As with the other searches, there will be 'rubbish' words in the solution set from the word lists used by this facility - ignore them.
Online Dictionary Lookups Solution words generated by this page come from two static text file 'word lists' stored with the source code for these pages. You may use the links in the 'Other Resources' section to look up the legitimacy and/or the meaning of words. Easier still, you can click on any word in the result listings to check it in an online dictionary which will open (or re-open) in a separate Web Browser tab. By Default the Collins dictionary is consulted, but if you explicitly open any of the dictionaries in the 'Other Resources' links (Collins, Wiktionary, Dictionary.com), the last one opened will be used to lookup selected solution words during the current user session.
results script Version 6.0, November 2024