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Crossword Helper
Know some letters but not all of them? Enter the pattern, using an underscore for each blank square. This edition uses a filtered word list.
Classroom edition — filtered word list, no advertising. What is filtered
Matches appear as you type.
Enter a pattern above, using _ for each unknown letter.
How to write a pattern
Type the letters you already have and an underscore for every empty square. The number of characters must match the length of the answer.
| Pattern | Means | Example matches |
|---|---|---|
| _R_SS | 5 letters, R second, S fourth and fifth | BRASS, CRESS, DRESS, GRASS, PRESS |
| C_T | 3 letters, starts C, ends T | CAT, COT, CUT |
| __ING | 5 letters ending in ING | BEING, BRING, DOING, THING |
A question mark or a full stop works the same as an underscore, so patterns copied from elsewhere usually paste straight in.
Narrowing a long list
Short patterns with few known letters can return hundreds of matches. The Must also contain box filters to words containing a particular letter anywhere, which is useful when a crossing answer has given you one letter but not its position.
About our word list. Results come from ENABLE, a large open English lexicon in the public domain, with offensive terms filtered out. It is not an official tournament dictionary, so a word that appears here may still be challenged in competitive play, and vice versa.
Common questions
What symbol do I use for an unknown letter?
An underscore _ is the standard. A question mark or a full stop also work.
Can it solve the clue as well as the pattern?
No. This tool matches letter patterns only. It does not interpret clues, which is what makes it fast and completely private.
Why are there no matches for my pattern?
Usually the length is off by one. Count the squares again — you need exactly one character per square, including the letters you know.
Does it handle words with hyphens or two words?
Not yet. The word list contains single unhyphenated words only.