Word tools · 6 minute read
How to Choose the Right Word Tool
Match your known information—position, sequence, ending, or letter inventory—to the narrowest useful search tool.
Published and reviewed by ClueMotive · August 16, 2026
Start with what the puzzle preserves
If position is fixed, use a pattern finder. If order is unknown, use an unscrambler or exact anagram solver. If one sequence is known, choose starting, ending, or containing search according to where it appears.
The correct tool encodes the puzzle’s real constraints and keeps the result list small.
Position-based choices
A crossword grid and a deduction-game row both preserve positions. The general pattern finder supports two to fifteen characters, while the five-letter finder adds include and exclude controls tailored to five-position puzzles.
Known letters that are adjacent but not position-fixed may be better handled by containing search.
Inventory-based choices
Use the unscrambler when a candidate may use some or all rack letters. Set length limits and required letters to model the available opening. Use exact anagrams when every source letter must appear once and no extras are allowed.
Sequence-based choices
Starting and ending tools pin a sequence to an edge. Containing search allows it anywhere but keeps the letters adjacent and ordered. These tools are useful for spelling families as well as active puzzles.
- PRE… → words starting with PRE.
- …TION → words ending with TION.
- …OUGH… → words containing OUGH.
- C??NE → fixed-position pattern.
Refine before switching tools
Begin with the narrowest constraint you can state confidently, then add length or commonness only when the result set is too broad. If a search returns nothing, remove the least certain constraint first; changing tools immediately can hide the original mistake.
A result is a spelling candidate, not an automatic answer. Check it against the clue, the game’s dictionary rules, grammar, and any crossing information before committing it to the puzzle.