Find a word with missing letters

The Missing Letter Word Finder matches known positions against the versioned compiled lexicon. Choose the total word length, type each letter you know, and leave every unknown position blank. A pattern such as C_T asks for three-letter spellings whose first letter is C and last letter is T; the middle letter is the only wildcard. Higher heuristic tiers appear first, with broader source-list matches available separately.

How to use it

1. Pick the word length from the number buttons above.
2. Type known letters into the tile slots. Leave unknowns blank.
3. Optionally type letters to rule out in the exclude field to narrow results further.
4. Results update live in the build's documented heuristic order.

Tips

• Even one or two known letters dramatically reduce the possibilities.
• Switch to text mode with "Type a pattern instead" if you prefer typing underscores for blanks.
• Include broader source-list matches to compare how the candidate set changes with source coverage.
• Use the exclude field to eliminate letters you've already tried.

How the pattern is interpreted

A letter is literal and an underscore represents exactly one missing letter. Underscores do not mean “any number of characters”, so R_S_ always describes a four-letter spelling. This positional rule is useful when a damaged word, partially remembered spelling, classroom exercise, or puzzle already tells you where some letters belong. The total length and the number of slots must agree.

Excluded letters apply across all blank positions. For example, excluding A after entering C_T removes CAT but can retain COT and CUT. Exclusions never override a fixed letter: if you type the same letter as both known and excluded, the search explains the invalid combination instead of guessing which instruction you meant.

Pattern search, anagrams, and word making

These tools answer different questions. Pattern search preserves position. The Anagram Solver and words-from-letters rack ignore position: exact mode requires every supplied letter, while rack mode may use a subset and up to three blanks. Use the combined Word Finder when unordered letters are only one of several clues. Starting with the right rule produces a shorter, more useful answer list.

What the ranking means

Every candidate first passes the same structural pattern. The order then uses the current build's documented evidence heuristic; it is not a claim that the first word is universally the most common. Source membership can also differ between releases and between the lists used by different publishers. Expand a result's explanation to inspect why it matched and which evidence is present.

Missing-letter questions

Related tools

• Rearrange every supplied letter exactly once
• Search from a remembered sound instead