Words & Puzzles tool
Crossword Pattern Assistant
Match a crossword pattern using known and unknown letters, with optional required and excluded letters.
Processed privately in your browser — your entries are not uploaded.
Dictionary and method
How the word matching works
The assistant compares the length and every known letter position against the dictionary. Excluded letters remove possibilities, while required letters must appear somewhere in each result.
Word-list source and licence
The matching list combines common British and American spellings from SCOWL up to size 60—the level used for a typical spell-checking dictionary. We exclude punctuation, abbreviations and entries longer than 24 letters to keep searches practical.
English Speller Database / SCOWL © 2000–2026 Kevin Atkinson. Permission is granted to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell word lists created from it, provided its copyright and permission notice appear in supporting documentation. The data is provided “as is” without warranty.
Definition source and licence
Definitions come from Open English WordNet 2025. They are stored on One Useful Site and loaded only when the open-book button is selected, so looking up a meaning does not send the word to an outside dictionary service. Some specialist, inflected or unusual words may not have a definition available.
Open English WordNet is derived from Princeton WordNet by the Open English WordNet Community and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Good to know
How this tool works
Match a crossword pattern using known and unknown letters, with optional required and excluded letters. Work through the labelled controls, review the result in the preview and reset the tool whenever you want to begin again.
Frequently asked questions
What is Crossword Pattern Assistant useful for?
Find possible words from a crossword letter pattern. Review the result in its full sentence, clue or puzzle because context can change the best answer.
Is my information stored?
This tool works in your browser. The information you enter is not sent to us or saved in an account by this tool.
How accurate is the result?
The calculation follows the assumptions shown on the page. Rounding, provider methods and real-world charges can produce small differences.