Pattern Solver
Fill the blanks
Type the letters you know and an underscore for each one you don't — c_t_e finds cutie, cater and more. Great for crosswords and hangman.
Solving by shape instead of by letters
Most solvers start from a bag of letters. This one starts from positions: you know the word is seven letters, begins with S, and has an E fourth. That is a different problem, and it is the one crossword grids, hangman and Wheel of Fortune actually give you.
Enter the letters you know and use ? for each unknown position. S??E??? finds every seven-letter word starting with S and carrying an E in the fourth slot.
Narrowing a crossword clue
A crossing letter is worth more than a guess. Each confirmed letter typically cuts the candidate list by an order of magnitude, so filling one crossing entry first and coming back is usually faster than staring at the original clue. When the pattern returns two or three options, the clue's wording almost always resolves which one it is.
Word length alone rarely helps, but length plus two scattered letters usually gets you to a handful of candidates.
Hangman and letter frequency
In hangman the pattern grows as you guess, and the useful skill is choosing which letter to try next. E, A and R appear in more English words than any other letters, so they are the standard opening guesses. Once you have a pattern, the better move is to look at the candidate list and pick a letter that splits it roughly in half rather than one that appears in almost all of them.
Frequently asked questions
What does ? mean here?
One unknown letter in that exact position. Unlike the other tools, position matters — S?T and ?ST are different searches that return different words.
Can I search by length alone?
Yes. A pattern of nothing but question marks returns every word of that length, which is a large list for short words and a surprisingly manageable one for nine letters and up.
Does it handle letters I know are not in the word?
Not in the pattern itself. If you are solving Wordle, where excluded letters matter as much as placed ones, use the Wordle solver — it takes both kinds of information.
Why does my crossword answer not appear?
Crosswords use proper nouns, abbreviations and multi-word answers freely, and none of those are in a standard dictionary. Cryptic clues also resolve to answers that only make sense once the wordplay is decoded.
Is there a maximum length?
Twenty positions, well beyond what any crossword grid or hangman game will ask for.