Word Finder
The Word Finder is a full dictionary search: combine an exact length, starting or ending letters, letters the word must contain, letters it must avoid, and ? wildcards for unknown positions. Filters stack, so you can be as broad or as precise as you need.
LetterTrove uses one general English word list — a filtered version of dwyl/english-words (words_alpha.txt), derived from the Moby/Infochimps English word data, kept to lowercase words of 2–12 letters. Common, recognisable words are listed first within each length group, and two-letter results are limited to recognised everyday English. We don’t claim every entry is common modern English or valid in any particular word game. See the About page for full source details.
How to use the Word Finder
- Fill in any combination of filters — all are optional, but at least one is required.
- Use ? in the pattern box for unknown letters (it also fixes the length).
- Press Find words to see every match, grouped by length.
Excluding letters is a quiet superpower: combine it with a length filter to solve puzzles that ban certain letters.
How the filters combine
Every filter is optional, but you need at least one. They stack — a word has to satisfy all of them to appear. Leave a field blank and it’s simply ignored.
Starts with and Ends with anchor your letters to the front or back. Contains looks for a letter sequence anywhere inside the word, in order. Excludes drops any word that uses those letters at all.
Useful combination: five-letter words starting with “s”, containing “a”, and excluding “e” narrows a full dictionary down to a handful of candidates — handy when a puzzle rules certain letters out.
- Pattern with ? also fixes the length: c??e returns four-letter words only.
- Exact length is optional on its own, but a pattern always overrides it.
- Conflicting filters return nothing — for example, starts with “a” and excludes “a”.