Worked examples

Example 1: an easy letter set

Letters: A, E, L, P, R, S, T, center letter A.

Typing A into the center box and E L P R S T into the outer box turns up a large list almost immediately, since these are common, flexible letters. Early finds tend to include "LATER", "PLATE", "PLEAT", and "ALERT", straightforward 5-letter words that use a handful of the available letters. Sorting by length surfaces longer options too, including "PLASTER", a solid 7-letter find. Because every one of P, L, A, S, T, E, R is used in "PLASTER", it's also a pangram, and the tool marks it with a gold border and a 14-point badge (7 base points for length, plus the 7-point pangram bonus) as soon as it's typed in. This is a good first puzzle to try the tool on precisely because the results list fills up fast, giving a quick feel for the sort and filter controls before moving to a harder set.

Example 2: a trickier set where obvious words run out

Letters: C, I, M, N, O, R, T, center letter I.

This one starts easy, "MINOR" and "TONIC" both show up right away since they fit the letters and include the required center I. "TRICK" is close but has a K, which isn't one of the 7 letters, so it's a trap, not a real match. "MOTOR" is another good trap to notice: every one of its letters (M, O, T, R, with O repeated) is technically allowed, but it's still rejected because it never uses the center letter I anywhere, and the center letter is mandatory in every valid word, not just an available option. The genuinely tricky part of this puzzle is that the easy 5-letter words dry up fast, and finding anything longer takes real digging. "MICRON" is a satisfying 6-letter find once you get there, and checking whether it happens to be a pangram is worth doing (it isn't, since it's missing the T). This kind of puzzle is a good example of why sorting by length rather than scrolling alphabetically saves real time, since the longer, higher-value words are scattered rather than clustered together.

Example 3: hunting specifically for the pangram

Letters: D, E, G, L, N, O, R, center letter O.

Sometimes the fastest approach isn't to look for every word in order, it's to go straight for the pangram first, then fill in the rest of the list around it. Ticking "Pangrams only" immediately before typing much else won't show anything until enough letters are entered, but once all 7 are in, that filter jumps straight to just the words using every letter. In this set, "GOLDEN" is close but only 6 letters and misses the R, not a pangram. With all 7 letters entered, ticking "Pangrams only" surfaces the actual answer instantly: "GOLDENROD", which uses every one of D, E, G, L, N, O, R (with a couple of letters repeated) and includes the required center O, exactly what the pangram filter exists to surface instantly rather than making you eyeball a long alphabetical list looking for one that happens to touch all 7 letters. Once the pangram is confirmed, switching back to the full unfiltered list and sorting by length is a reasonable way to mop up the rest of the shorter, easier finds.

A note on using the sort controls efficiently

New users of the tool often leave the results sorted alphabetically the entire time, which works fine for a short list but gets slow once a puzzle has 40 or 50 matches. Length sorting is the better default for most people, since it puts the highest-value words at the top where they're easy to compare, and it makes checking for a pangram (always among the longest possible matches, since it has to use all 7 letters) much faster than scanning an alphabetical list top to bottom. Alphabetical sorting is still useful in one specific situation: when you already suspect a word exists and want to confirm it quickly rather than browse, jumping straight to where it would sit alphabetically is faster than scrolling past everything sorted by length.

What these examples have in common

Across all three, the same core workflow repeats: type the center letter, type the other six, then use the sort and filter controls above the results rather than re-entering anything. Switching from "Length" to "Pangrams first" or ticking "Pangrams only" never requires retyping the letters, since the tool keeps your current puzzle in place and just re-sorts or re-filters the same underlying match list. If you're not sure what a rule means, like why a word with a repeated letter is still valid, or why a 3-letter word never shows up, the how to play page covers the full rule set, and the word list page explains exactly which dictionary the results are checked against.