Ultimate Word & Text Toolkit

Word Pattern Finder

Type the letters you know and a question mark for each unknown one. The pattern length sets the word length, so “c?t” finds cat, cot and cut.

Runs entirely in your browser — your text is never uploaded

Type the letters you know and a question mark (?) for every unknown letter. The pattern length is the word length, so ?a??e finds five-letter words with an “a” second and an “e” last.

Enter a pattern using ? for unknown letters.

How to use Word Pattern Finder

  1. Enter your pattern using ? for every unknown letter.
  2. Add letters the word must also contain, if you know any.
  3. Review the matches and copy the one that fits.

Examples

Input

c?t

Result

cat, cot, cut

Input

??ight

Result

bright, flight, slight, blight

What you can type into Word Pattern Finder

Fixed letters
Any letter you type is locked to that position. A??LE keeps A first and LE last.
Unknown positions
One ? per unknown square. ??IGHT is six characters, so it only matches six-letter words such as bright and flight.
Extra contained letters
Letters added in the contains field must appear somewhere in the word, at a position you have not already fixed.
Unsupported input
Spaces, digits, hyphens and other wildcards such as * or _ are stripped before matching. If a pattern contains nothing but stripped characters, no search runs and the results area stays empty rather than showing a false answer.

How the results behave

Length is fixed by the pattern
The number of characters you type is the number of letters in every result — patterns never match across lengths.
Empty result means no match at that length
It does not mean the word does not exist; try the same letters at a different length or with one more ?.
Capped list
A search returns up to 400 matches so the page stays fast. When you see a full 400 results, add a length or letter filter to see the part of the list you actually need.

Tips

  • For Wordle, put your green letters in position and leave everything else as ?, then add the yellow letters to the contains field.
  • For crosswords, count the squares before typing — a miscount is the most common reason a pattern search looks broken.
  • Working from a rare fixed letter (J, Q, X, Z) usually collapses the list to a handful of candidates.

Common mistakes

  • Expecting one ? to match several letters. It always matches exactly one.
  • Mixing punctuation into the pattern for hyphenated answers — the list holds single words only.

About the word pattern finder

Anyone filling a fixed-length slot: crossword squares, Wordle rows, hangman blanks or a board-game space between two existing tiles.

Pattern matching is the most precise way to search a dictionary when you know where letters sit. Each question mark matches exactly one letter, so the pattern always has the same length as the answer.

If you know letters but not their positions, a contains search is a better fit; if you know only the start or end, use the prefix and suffix tools instead.

Accuracy and limitations

  • Results come from this site's own list of about 16,750 words drawn from common written English. It is not an official game or tournament dictionary: rare, technical and inflected words can be missing, while some names, place names and abbreviations are included even though most word games would reject them. Always check a result against the rules of the game you are playing.

Frequently asked questions

What wildcard characters can I use?

A question mark (?) stands for one unknown letter. Every other character is matched literally.

Can a pattern match words of different lengths?

No. The pattern length is the word length. To search across lengths, use the Word Length Finder or Words Containing tools.

Read more

Ready-made word lists

Prefer to browse instead of search? These lists are already built.

Related tools

Crossword Word Finder

Fill a crossword slot from the letters you already have.

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Word Finder

Search words by pattern, length, start, end and contained letters.

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Words With Letters

List words that contain the letters you specify.

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Word Length Finder

Find words by exact, minimum or maximum length.

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