This Letter Boxed solver takes the twelve letters around the square and finds every word that follows the side rule, then works out the shortest chains of words that use all twelve letters. Tap any answer to see it traced across the box.
Loading the tool…
This is an independent solver for the Letter Boxed puzzle from The New York Times. Canuckle is not affiliated with The New York Times.
How to use the Letter Boxed solver
- Type the three letters on each side of the square into the Top, Right, Bottom and Left boxes. After three letters the cursor moves to the next side.
- If you have all twelve letters in a row, paste them into the Top box and they fill all four sides in order.
- Press Solve. The solver lists the shortest solutions first, then every valid word grouped by length.
- Tap a solution to draw it on the box. The first word is a solid red line and the second is a dashed blue one, and used letters turn dark.
Solutions are built from everyday words first. If no answer of three words or fewer can be made from common words, the solver brings in rarer ones and says so. Tick Include rarer words in solutions to always search the full dictionary.
Letter Boxed rules
- Words must be at least three letters long.
- Consecutive letters in a word cannot come from the same side of the square.
- Each new word starts with the last letter of the word before it.
- Letters can be used more than once.
- The puzzle is solved when every one of the twelve letters has been used. The game suggests a target number of words, and doing it in fewer is the real challenge.
Worked example: RAE, TCO, NUP, LSI
We made up a box with R, A, E on top, T, C, O on the right, N, U, P on the bottom and L, S, I on the left. The solver found 1,083 valid everyday words and 643 two-word solutions, with no single word covering all twelve letters.
The first few answers, shortest and most common first:
- ROUTINES → SCALP (13 letters in total)
- SPRUCE → ELATION
- TURNIPS → SOLACE
- CRONIES → SPATULA
Take ROUTINES. R is on the top side, O on the right, U on the bottom, T on the right, I on the left, N on the bottom, E on the top and S on the left. No two neighbours share a side, and ROUTINES ends in S, which is where SCALP begins. Between them they use all twelve letters, and C, A, L and P fill in the four that ROUTINES missed.
Tips for solving Letter Boxed in two words
- Find the awkward letters first. Letters like Q, X, Z, J and V limit what words you can make. Find a word that uses them and build the rest around it.
- Go long with the first word. A long first word that covers eight or nine letters leaves only three or four for the second word. The solver highlights words that use eight or more different letters.
- Watch the last letter. Words ending in S, E, T or D give you plenty of options to start the next word. A word ending in a rare letter can leave you stuck.
- Plurals and endings help. Adding S or ED can grab a letter you still need and give the next word a friendlier start.
- Use both sides of a corner. Since letters on the same side cannot touch, think of each word as zigzagging across the box. Sketching the line on paper shows which letters you have not reached.
Why the solver might differ from the game
The official puzzle uses its own word list, which leaves out some words a dictionary includes. If the game rejects one of the solver's suggestions, pick the next answer in the list. With hundreds of two-word solutions on most boxes, there is almost always another that works.
More solvers for daily puzzles
If you play other puzzles from the same games page, the Spelling Bee solver gives you a hint grid and pangrams for the honeycomb puzzle. The anagram solver unscrambles letters for any word game, and the Wordle solver narrows down five letter guesses. You can also try today's Canuckle, the Canadian take on the daily five letter puzzle.