Stuck on a crossword clue? Enter the letters you know and use ? for any unknowns. We'll find every word that matches your pattern.

How the Crossword Solver Works

The Crossword Solver uses pattern matching to instantly find every word that fits your clue. Enter the letters you know in their exact positions, and use ? to represent any unknown letter. For example:

c?t matches cat, cot, cut, etc.
?a??e matches dance, sauce, whale, etc.
h???o matches hello, hullo, and other 5-letter words with 'h' at the start and 'o' at the end.

Using Question Marks (Wildcards)

The ? symbol represents any single letter. Use it when:

You're unsure of a specific letter in the answer.
You want to explore alternative spellings or similar words.
You need to find words that fit a partially-filled grid.

Each ? counts as exactly one letter, so the total pattern length determines the word length you're looking for. A pattern of 5 characters will only show 5-letter words.

Pattern Matching Examples

Pattern	Matches	Example Use
`c?t`	3-letter words with 'c' and 't'	"Feline animal" (cat)
`s?ngy`	5-letter words starting with 's', ending with 'gy'	"Full of song" (songy)
`?????????`	All 10-letter words	When you know the length but none of the letters

Scoring and Word Rankings

Results are ranked by Scrabble point value, so the highest-scoring valid plays appear first. This is helpful if you're solving a crossword in a word game context. The point values shown are face-value tile scores from Scrabble (no board multipliers).

About the ENABLE Dictionary

This tool uses the ENABLE (Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon) word list, a public-domain resource that contains over 170,000 words. ENABLE closely mirrors the TWL (Tournament Word List) used in competitive Scrabble, making it reliable for crossword puzzles and word games.

Tips for Solving Crosswords

Start with common patterns: Words ending in -ing, -tion, or -ed appear frequently in crosswords.
Use letter frequency: Common letters like E, A, R, S, T, N appear more often than Q, Z, X.
Check clue direction: Make sure your pattern matches both across and down clues if relevant.
Consider word length: The number of squares in the grid tells you the exact word length needed.
Look for less common words: Crosswords often test vocabulary. If common words don't fit, try synonyms or less familiar terms.

Other Word Tools

Looking for other word puzzle solvers? Try our word unscrambler to find words from a set of letters, our anagram solver for exact-match anagrams, or our Scrabble word finder for high-scoring plays.