Word Finder
Know the shape but not the word? Search by starts with, ends with, contains, and length. Filters combine to narrow results fast. Free, no account, no search limit.
Alfred Butts and the New York Times
Alfred Mosher Butts was an architect from Poughkeepsie, New York. He was laid off from his firm in 1931 during the Great Depression. Out of work and bored, he decided to invent a board game that combined anagrams and crossword puzzles, two of his favorite pastimes.
Butts studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how frequently each letter of the alphabet appeared in English. He found that just 12 letters (E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L, U) accounted for 80 percent of the most frequently used letters. He used this frequency analysis to determine how many of each letter tile to include and how many points each should carry. He included only four S tiles to prevent players from pluralizing too easily.
His first version was called Lexiko. Players drew nine tiles and formed words. No board. Every major games manufacturer rejected it. He refined it, reduced to seven tiles, added a board with premium squares, and renamed it Criss-Cross Words. Still rejected. He sold 84 handmade sets at a loss of $20.
In 1947, James Brunot bought the rights, tweaked the rules, added the 50-point bonus for using all seven tiles, and renamed it Scrabble. He manufactured sets in an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut. The game caught on. By 1952 it was a national sensation. Butts received royalties and lived to see his invention become one of the best-selling board games in history. He died in 1993 at age 93.
The word list behind this tool is compatible with the NASPA Word List (NWL2023, effective February 29, 2024) used in competitive Scrabble in the US and Canada, and Collins Scrabble Words (CSW24, effective January 1, 2025) used internationally. NWL2023 is edited by the NASPA Dictionary Committee under John Chew. CSW24 is maintained by HarperCollins and endorsed by WESPA for tournament play. It contains over 290,000 words, with 1,814 new additions in the latest edition.
How to Use This Word Finder
Step 1. Enter your search criteria in one or more filter fields: starts with, ends with, contains, or word length.
Step 2. Fill in any combination of fields. More filters means narrower results.
Step 3. Click Find Words to run the search.
Step 4. Browse the results list. Click any word to see its definition.
How the Word Finder Works
A word finder searches a verified English word list to return every word that matches the pattern you describe. Unlike a dictionary lookup where you need to know the exact word, a word finder works with partial information. You might know the length, the first letter, and one middle letter, but nothing else.
The tool matches all of your filters simultaneously. Set starts with S, ends with N, and length 7 at the same time, and you get only the words that satisfy all three conditions. This multi-filter approach is what makes it useful for crosswords and word games where you are working with constraints, not free-form input.
Search Examples
Here are three specific search scenarios showing exactly what filters to set and what results to expect.
Scenario 1: Words ending in -TION, 7 letters
Filters: Ends with: TION | Length: 7
Results include: SECTION, MENTION, FICTION, CAPTION, DUCTION, UNCTION, FACTION
Useful for: crossword clues like a 7-letter word for a chapter heading
Scenario 2: 5-letter words starting with PL
Filters: Starts with: PL | Length: 5
Results include: PLACE, PLAIN, PLANE, PLANT, PLATE, PLAZA, PLEAD, PLUMB, PLUME, PLUNK
Useful for: Scrabble when you have P and L on your rack and need a 5-tile play
Scenario 3: 4-letter words containing E, ending in D
Filters: Contains: E | Ends with: D | Length: 4
Results include: BEAD, FEED, HEED, LEAD, MEND, NEED, READ, SEED, WEED, BRED, FLED, SLED
Useful for: crossword answers where you can see the final D and the grid confirms a 4-letter slot
Crossword Solver Walkthrough
Crosswords are the most common use case for a word finder. Here is how to work through a typical clue efficiently.
Example clue: "Sharp retort" (5 letters). You have filled in _ E _ _ Y from crossing answers.
Set the following filters: Contains: E (second letter), Ends with: Y, Length: 5. The results will include REPLY, the correct answer, alongside a short list of other candidates like BEADY or NERVY that you can eliminate based on the clue meaning.
For harder clues where you only know one or two letters, start with length alone to see the full candidate set, then add a contains filter for any confirmed letter to quickly narrow it down.
Word Game Use Cases
Scrabble and Words with Friends
When you have a fixed set of tiles and a board position, use the word finder to identify plays that start or end with a specific letter already on the board. If there is a T already placed and you need a 5-letter word that starts with T and contains a Q, the tool will surface candidates like TRANQ that you might not think of under time pressure.
Daily Word Games
If you are stuck on today's Lexle or a similar guessing puzzle and you know some letters and their positions, the word finder lets you filter for exactly that pattern. This is faster than mentally scrolling through possibilities and more accurate than guessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from an anagram solver?
An anagram solver rearranges a fixed set of letters. You supply all the letters and it finds every word those letters can make. A word finder searches by pattern. You describe part of the word and it finds every word that fits. Use the Anagram Solver when you have a specific tile set. Use this tool when you know the word's shape but not its content.
Who invented Scrabble and how did letter frequency analysis create the tile distribution?
Alfred Mosher Butts invented Scrabble in 1931 while unemployed during the Great Depression. He was an architect from Poughkeepsie, New York, who studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how frequently each letter appeared in English. He found that 12 letters accounted for 80 percent of the most frequently used letters. He used this analysis to determine tile counts and point values, including only four S tiles to prevent excessive pluralizing.
What word list powers this tool?
The tool draws from a standard English dictionary compatible with the NASPA Word List (NWL2023, effective February 29, 2024) used in competitive Scrabble in the US and Canada, and Collins Scrabble Words (CSW24, effective January 1, 2025) used internationally. CSW24 contains over 290,000 words, with 1,814 new additions in the latest edition.
Can I use multiple filters at the same time?
Yes. Combining filters is the most powerful way to use the tool. Setting starts-with, ends-with, contains, and length simultaneously returns only words that satisfy every condition at once. A single filter returns a broad list. Three or four filters together usually return a short, precise set of candidates.
What word lengths does the tool support?
The tool searches words from 2 to 14 letters. Use the length filter to target a specific count. This is especially important for crosswords where the grid fixes the answer length exactly.
Start Finding
The word finder gives you precise control over your search through a NASPA-compatible dictionary. Whether you are solving a crossword clue with a fixed grid pattern, hunting for high-value tiles in Scrabble, or exploring what words exist at a particular length, combining the available filters gets you to the right answer faster than any manual method.
If you have a specific set of letters and want every word they can form, use the Anagram Solver. For rhyming words for poetry or songwriting, the Rhyme Finder returns perfect and near rhymes. And to browse curated word lists by length and starting letter, visit Word Lists.