Word Descrambler & Jumble Solver
A jumble solver puts the answer first: type the scrambled letters and the full-length word that uses every one of them appears in its own card, with every shorter word the same letters can spell listed underneath.
Use ? or * for a blank tile, up to 15 characters. The dictionary loads in the background.
The word that uses every letter comes first, then every shorter word.
Built for a jumble with one intended answer: the full-length word comes first in its own card and the shorter words follow, where the anagram solver would show you only the full-length ones.
This is the tool for the daily Jumble, for scrambled-tile games, and for any puzzle that hands you a nonsense string and expects a word back. Type the letters in whatever order they appear. The jumble solver ignores order entirely and works from the letters themselves, so ELBAT and TABLE are the same query, and MIAGLAC comes straight back as MAGICAL.
Any word that uses every letter is lifted into an answer card above the list, because that is almost always the word a jumble wants. The shorter words follow, grouped by length with the longest first, so you can still work a puzzle that wants several answers from one set of letters, or test a partial answer when a clue turns out to be two short words rather than one long one.
How does the jumble solver work?
Type the jumble exactly as it is printed
Copy the scrambled letters in whatever order the puzzle shows them, up to 15. The solver works from the letters, not their order, so ELBAT, BLEAT and TABLE are one query, and the answer card updates with every letter you add or delete.
Missing a letter? Put a question mark in its place
When a circled letter is still unknown, or a cartoon answer is a letter short, type ? for each gap. Any number of them fits within the 15 characters and each is tried as all 26 letters, though every extra gap widens the list, so fill in what you know first.
Checked against all 269,870 words in the list
The jumble is compared with every word in an open SCOWL-family English list, from 2 to 15 letters, including 12,578 five-letter and 22,342 six-letter words, the lengths most newspaper jumbles use. It is not TWL or Collins, and it is far wider than any puzzle's answer pool.
The answer first, then every shorter word
Words that use every letter sit in the answer card at the top. Below it, the shorter words are grouped by length, longest first and highest scoring first within each length, which is what you need when a cartoon punchline splits into two or three words.
How do you solve the daily Jumble?
The newspaper Jumble scrambles four words, circles a few letters in each, and feeds those circled letters into a final cartoon answer. Solve each of the four separately, note the circled letters from the answers you are confident about, then run that collected set through for the punchline.
The final answer is often two or more words, so read the shorter results as well as the answer card. Fitting the letter count of the blanks under the cartoon is usually what identifies the right split.
How do you descramble a word?
By hand, the reliable method is to pull out the letter pairs English actually uses. Look for TH, CH, SH, QU, CK and the vowel pairs EA, OU, IE, then see what is left. Most scrambles hide a common prefix or suffix as well, so scan for RE, UN, IN at the front and ING, ED, ER, LY, TION at the back.
That gets you there on a five or six-letter jumble. Past seven letters the number of arrangements outruns patience, which is where this tool comes in: it compares the letter signature of your input against every word in a 269,870-word list at once, so the answer appears whether or not the pattern was obvious.
What if the scrambled letters make more than one word?
That happens constantly, and it is not a fault in the puzzle. Six ordinary letters can carry several full-length answers, and the answer card shows them side by side, so use the clue to choose. In a crossword-style jumble the definition decides it, and in a Jumble the circled letters do.
When you want only the full-length candidates and none of the shorter words, switch to anagram mode, which drops everything that does not use all your letters.
Worked examples: jumbles solved
ELBAT
ELBAT is a scramble of TABLE. The descrambler returns the five-letter answer and every shorter word the same letters hold, which is what a Jumble grid usually needs:
Showing 24 of 53 words from these 5 letters. See every word from ELBAT →
NROCPOP
A harder seven-letter jumble. There is only one seven-letter answer in here, and it is the one the puzzle wants:
Showing 24 of 35 words from these 7 letters. See every word from NROCPOP →
Jumble solver, descrambler or anagram solver?
Jumble solver, descrambler and unscrambler are three names for the same search, and all three are looser than an anagram solver.
| Tool | Uses | Returns | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anagram solver | every letter you enter, no more and no fewer | only words the exact same length as your input | names, single hidden words, and the LISTEN / SILENT kind of puzzle |
| Word unscrambler | any subset of your letters | full-length words plus every shorter word inside them | the daily jumble, tile games, and any puzzle with several answers |
| Word finder | your letters plus board constraints | words filtered by starting letter, ending letter or length | Scrabble and Words With Friends, where the play has to fit the board |
Stay here for jumbles and scrambled tiles. Use anagram mode when the puzzle promises the answer uses every letter, and use the Scrabble or Words With Friends finder when the answer also has to fit a board and score well.
How many words could a jumble of each length be?
How wide the search actually is. A five-letter jumble is being matched against 12,578 candidates, a seven-letter one against 33,192, which is why hand-solving gets hard so quickly:
| Word length | Words in the dictionary | Full list |
|---|---|---|
| 4 letters | 5,469 | Every 4-letter word |
| 5 letters | 12,578 | Every 5-letter word |
| 6 letters | 22,342 | Every 6-letter word |
| 7 letters | 33,192 | Every 7-letter word |
| 8 letters | 40,530 | Every 8-letter word |
| 9 letters | 41,139 | Every 9-letter word |
Frequently asked questions
What is a jumble solver?
A jumble solver turns scrambled letters back into the word they came from. Type the jumble and the full-length answer appears first, in its own card, with every shorter word from the same letters listed below it, grouped by length. MIAGLAC, for example, comes straight back as MAGICAL.
What is the difference between a descrambler and an anagram solver?
An anagram solver returns only words that use every single letter you entered. A descrambler is looser: it also returns the shorter words built from part of your letters, which is what most jumble puzzles actually need.
Can it solve the daily Jumble?
Yes. Enter the scrambled letters for each of the four clue words in turn and read the answer card, then collect the circled letters from your answers and run that set through for the cartoon punchline. The final answer is often several words, so read the shorter results too.
Does the order of the letters matter?
No. The descrambler works from the letters themselves, not their order, so ELBAT, BLEAT and TABLE are all the same query and return the same list.
Is there a length limit?
You can enter up to 15 letters, the length of the longest words in the list. Longer jumbles simply produce more results, but the full-length answer stays in its card at the top and everything below it is grouped by word length, so the list stays readable.
How do you descramble letters by hand?
Look for the letter pairs English relies on, TH, CH, SH, QU and CK, then check for a prefix like RE or UN and a suffix like ING, ED or TION. Whatever remains is usually a short recognisable core. This works well up to six letters and gets impractical beyond seven.
Why does one scramble return several words?
Because different words can share the same letters. Six common letters often carry more than one full-length answer, so use the puzzle's clue, its circled letters, or the length of the blanks to pick the right one.
Does it work for scrambled words with a repeated letter?
Yes. Repeated letters are treated as separate tiles, so entering the letters of a word like LETTER returns only words that use two T tiles and two E tiles, never more than you actually have.