Play today

Jumble Solver

Paste in one jumbled word or the whole puzzle at once, and this Jumble solver unscrambles each word using all of its letters, with everyday answers first. A second box takes the circled letters and the word lengths of the final answer, and finds the phrases those letters can spell.

Loading the tool…

How the Jumble solver works

The newspaper Jumble gives you a handful of scrambled words. Unscramble them, take the letters sitting in the circled squares, and rearrange those to answer the cartoon's riddle, which is usually a pun. The tool follows the same two steps.

Step 1: the scrambled words

  1. Type the jumbled words into the first box, one per line. Commas or spaces between them work too.
  2. Press Unscramble. Each jumble gets its own row with the words that use exactly those letters.

Only exact matches are shown, so every answer uses all of the letters once. Common words come first, and rare ones are lighter, since the puzzle almost always uses words you know.

Step 2: the circled letters

  1. Copy the circled letters from your solved words into the Circled letters box.
  2. In Word lengths, type the length of each word in the answer, in order. A four letter word then a five letter word is 4,5. Leave it empty if the answer is one word.
  3. Press Solve the phrase.

The phrase search sticks to everyday words and stops after 200 answers, so it stays quick even with lots of letters. If you get a long list, solve one more of the scrambled words first or use the cartoon to guess one word of the answer, then take its letters out and search again.

Worked example

Here is a small puzzle with a Canadian theme. Enter these four jumbles:

  • NOCEA
  • RYOFT
  • LEMAP
  • XQZT

The solver reports "Solved 3 of 4 words." NOCEA gives CANOE and OCEAN, RYOFT gives FORTY, and LEMAP gives AMPLE and MAPLE. XQZT has no answer, which is the solver's way of telling you there is a typo in that jumble.

Two of the jumbles have two answers each. That is normal in a Jumble, and the circled squares usually settle it, because only one choice will put useful letters in the circles.

For the final answer, type HOCKEYNIGHT in Circled letters and 6,5 in Word lengths. The solver finds two answers: HOCKEY NIGHT and HOCKEY THING. Both use the letters correctly, and the cartoon clue tells you which one is the joke.

Tips for solving Jumbles by hand

  • Find the vowels first. Place them in different spots and see which consonant pairs fall into place around them.
  • Look for common pairs. CH, SH, TH and CK often sit together, and Q is nearly always followed by U. Endings like ER, LY, ED and ING are worth trying at the end of longer jumbles.
  • Read the cartoon before the final phrase. The riddle usually hints at a pun, a saying, or a word with two meanings. Having a guess in mind makes the circled letters much easier.
  • Count the blanks in the answer. The word lengths tell you where the breaks fall. Once you spot a likely short word, such as THE or AND, the rest of the letters are much easier to place.
  • Try the lengths in another order. If no phrase turns up, check you copied the word lengths from left to right. Swapping 5,4 for 4,5 gives a different search.

Related solvers

If you want every word hidden in a set of letters, not just exact matches, the anagram solver lists them all by length. For coded quotes where every letter has been swapped for another, the cryptogram solver works out the key. For a different kind of word puzzle, Unlimited Canuckle gives you as many five letter rounds as you like.

Frequently asked questions

Can I solve all the jumbled words at once?

Yes. Put each jumble on its own line, or separate them with commas, and the solver answers each one in its own row.

How do I solve the circled letters?

Type the circled letters into the second box and the length of each word in the answer, such as 4,5. The solver lists phrases that use every letter once.

Why does a jumble have two answers?

Some letter sets spell more than one word, like CANOE and OCEAN. The circled squares and the cartoon clue usually show which one the puzzle wants.

Why does the solver find nothing for my jumble?

Most often a letter has been typed wrong or left out. Check the jumble against the puzzle, since the solver only shows words that use exactly those letters.

More to play