A worked solving guide
Letters to words or known positions?
Start with the kind of clue you have. A pile of available letters and a partially filled word follow different rules.
Examples checked
Is the clue an inventory or a location?
Imagine five loose tiles: A, E, L, P and P. You can move them around, but you cannot invent an N or use a third P. Letters to words treats those tiles as a finite inventory. Leave Use all letters off when shorter words are useful; select it when the answer must use the entire rack.
A crossword gives a different kind of information. If the answer has five spaces and its second letter is R, that R belongs in box 2. You do not need a tile for every other letter. Known positions leaves those spaces open and searches the dictionary for words that respect the confirmed location.
| Your clue | Search method | What stays fixed |
|---|---|---|
| Loose letters or tiles | Letters to words | Available copies of each letter |
| A rearrangement of every tile | Anagrams / Use all letters | Every letter and the total length |
| Crossings in a partially filled word | Known positions | Length and confirmed letter locations |
Why the same letters can produce different results
Compare the two searches below. In the rack search, APPLE spends both Ps. PLANE fails because N is unavailable. In the pattern search, Include AELP asks for those four letters somewhere in the word; the fifth letter is unrestricted. It can be N, M, another P or another allowed letter.
Include letters is a minimum requirement, not a supply of tiles. It also does not fix the order: typing AELP does not require that consecutive sequence. Use neighboring position boxes when an actual sequence is known. This distinction prevents a common mistake: choosing a word that contains your letters but cannot be made from your rack.
Spend only the tiles you have
1 matchA E L P P · exactly 5 letters
- APPLEFitsUses A, E, L and both available Ps.
- PLANEDoesn’t fitNeeds N, which is not in the rack.
This finite rack supplies the whole word. There is no spare unknown letter.
Try this exampleRequire letters, leave the rest open
25 matches_ _ _ _ _ · include A E L P
- APPLEFitsContains A, E, L and P; an additional P is allowed.
- PLANEFitsContains A, E, L and P; the open fifth letter can be N.
These are two examples from the full matching list, not the only answers.
Try this exampleUse all letters when the inventory must stay intact
An exact anagram preserves the number of copies as well as the length. LISTEN has six different letters, so SILENT and ENLIST qualify. INLET does not: it leaves S unused. With a seven-tile rack, selecting a five-letter length and Use all letters together is a conflict, not a difficult search.
Once the search method is right, add only the filters your puzzle confirms. A starting letter narrows a rack; a numbered box fixes a position. Finally, read the remaining candidates against the clue or your game rules. Letter compatibility does not prove meaning, an official game entry or the intended answer.
Keep the six-letter inventory
5 matchesL I S T E N · use all letters
- SILENTFitsRearranges all six supplied letters once each.
- ENLISTFitsUses the same six-letter inventory in another order.
- INLETDoesn’t fitHas only five letters and leaves S unused.
The other matching entries in this release are INLETS, LISTEN and TINSEL.
Try this exampleHow these examples were checked
These explanations were prepared for Word Tile Finder. Each matching count and accepted or rejected candidate is checked at build time with the finder’s own letter matcher against the ESDB 2026.02.25 American English word list. Counts describe this release, not word popularity or official game acceptance. Read the dictionary’s scope and filtering rules or inspect its license notices.
Choose the method that matches your clues before adding filters.
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