✏️ Crossword Puzzle Helper
Enter your crossword pattern with known letters and blanks to instantly find every matching word. Supports any puzzle from NYT Crossword to your daily newspaper.
Type your pattern below — use known letters and ? or _ for blank squares. Results update instantly.
Example: c_t → cat, cut, cot | ?ight → fight, light, night | s??ng → sting, swing, stung
Click a number to browse all words of that length — helpful when you only know how many letters a crossword answer has.
Our crossword helper is designed to be intuitive and instant. Here's everything you need to know.
Count how many squares the crossword answer occupies — this is your word length.
Type letters you already know in their correct positions. Use ? or _ for each blank square.
Instantly see all matching words. Known letters are highlighted in blue for easy scanning.
Found your answer? Click any word to copy it to your clipboard and fill in your puzzle.
Enter any mix of known letters and wildcards. Our engine matches patterns of any complexity across 80,000+ words.
No page reloads. Results appear in milliseconds as our client-side engine searches the full dictionary.
Narrow down answers using additional constraints: must-contain letters, starts-with, ends-with filters.
Don't know any letters yet? Browse all words by length to see candidates for any crossword answer slot.
Known letters are highlighted in results so you can instantly verify a word fits your crossword pattern.
Fully responsive design means you can solve crosswords on your phone, tablet, or desktop with equal ease.
Stuck on the NYT Crossword, Daily Telegraph, or Guardian cryptic? Enter your pattern and solve in seconds — perfect for those moments when one clue has you stumped for hours.
Teachers and parents use our crossword helper to create learning experiences. Students can check their work or get hints when educational crossword puzzles become too challenging.
Speed crossword solvers use pattern tools to verify answers quickly during timed competitions. Our instant results help confirm words without disrupting your solving flow.
Non-native English speakers use crossword solvers as vocabulary-building tools. Seeing all possible words for a pattern is a powerful way to discover new vocabulary in context.
Puzzle makers use pattern finders to fill grids when constructing crosswords. Find all valid words that fit a specific slot within an existing grid layout.
Beyond traditional crosswords, this tool helps with word-search puzzles, cryptograms, anagram grids, and any puzzle format that requires finding words with partial letter information.
A crossword solver is a digital tool that finds words matching a specific letter pattern — typically a combination of known letters and blank spaces. Whether you're working through a 15×15 American-style crossword or a compact British cryptic, the fundamental challenge is the same: given partial information about a word's letters and length, find the correct answer.
Our crossword solver works by pattern matching: you enter the letters you know in their correct positions, and use ? or _ as placeholders for unknown letters. The solver then scans its dictionary for every word that matches this exact pattern.
Different crossword formats require slightly different strategies when using a solver:
Experienced solvers know that tackling a crossword in the right order makes it significantly easier. Start with the shorter words (3–4 letters) and clues you're confident about — these "crossing" letters then reveal information about the longer, harder answers. Our solver is most powerful when used with at least 2–3 known letters in a pattern, as this dramatically narrows the candidate list.
When you have absolutely no letters for a word, use the "browse by length" feature to see all possible answers of that length. Combined with the semantic context of the clue, you can often identify the right answer from a short candidate list.
Type the letters you know in their exact positions, and use ? or _ (underscore) for each unknown letter. For a 5-letter word where you know the first letter is 'S' and the last is 'T', type s???t. The solver will find all words matching that exact pattern.
Both ? and _ work identically — they each represent exactly one unknown letter. Use whichever feels more natural to you. Some people prefer the underscore as it visually represents a blank crossword square, while others use the question mark as it more intuitively means "unknown."
Yes! If you only know the word length, enter that many ? marks (e.g., ????? for a 5-letter word). Alternatively, use the "Browse by Word Length" section to see all words of a given length without entering a pattern.
Our dictionary covers words up to 12 letters. Very long crossword answers (13+ letters) are often proper nouns, place names, or specialised terms that may not appear in general dictionaries. For these, try adding more known letters to narrow down possibilities.
The "Must Contain" filter is perfect when the crossword clue hints at a specific letter combination you expect to be in the answer. For example, if the clue relates to sound or music, you might filter for words containing "son" or "tone". Combine this with a length pattern for very precise results.
Partly! Cryptic crosswords require solving the wordplay element before using a pattern solver. Once you've decoded the cryptic indication and know some letters, our pattern solver helps confirm your answer. It's best used as a verification tool for cryptic puzzles rather than a primary solver.
Yes, completely free. No registration, no subscription, no ads. All our word tools — including the crossword solver, word finder, unscrambler, and rhyming word finder — are free to use without any account.
Absolutely! The pattern matcher is incredibly versatile. For Wordle, enter your 5-letter pattern with known letters and blanks. For Scrabble, it helps verify whether a specific word exists or find words to fit a particular board position. Visit our main Word Finder for full Scrabble-optimised tools.