Letter Boxed Solver

The Letter Boxed Solver is a free helper that finds word chains for a Letter Boxed puzzle. Enter the twelve letters on the four sides of the box, and it lists the shortest chains of words that use every letter. It is an independent tool, not the official New York Times game. The letter boxed solver runs entirely in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and no sign-up is needed. Use it to check your ideas, see which words are playable, or get past a stuck point with the last few letters. Solutions are drawn as a line through the box, so you can see the route as well as the words.

How to use the Letter Boxed Solver

1. Type the three letters on the top side into the Top box. After the third letter, the cursor moves to the next box.
2. Fill the Right, Bottom and Left boxes the same way, with exactly three letters in each.
3. Check that no letter appears on more than one side. If one does, the page names the repeated letter, so correct it before searching.
4. Press Enter or click Solve to start the search, or click Try an Example to fill the box with a sample puzzle.
5. Read the solution buttons. Chains with fewer words are listed first, then chains of more common words, and up to 40 are shown. The first solution is drawn in the box automatically.
6. Click any other solution button to draw that chain. A line runs through the letters in the order the words use them.
7. Scroll down to All playable words. They are grouped by length, longest first, with common words first in each group.

Typing three letters moves you to the next box, and Enter starts the search, so you can work without using the mouse. To try the tool first, use the built-in example: top TRA, right OEN, bottom MCL, left SIP. The first solution it shows is COMPLAINTS followed by SERIES.

What is Letter Boxed?

Letter Boxed is a word puzzle published by The New York Times. It shows a square with three letters on each side, twelve letters in total, and you link words together so that every one of those letters gets used. This solver is an independent helper and is not the official game.

Every puzzle uses only the twelve letters on the box. The name describes that layout: the letters sit around the edges of a box, and each word you play runs from one side to another. Solving means finding a short chain of words that covers all twelve letters.

Letter Boxed game rules

Every word must be built only from the twelve letters on the box. Two letters in a row within a word may not sit on the same side of the box. For example, BALL can never be played, because the two L’s are on the same side.

Each new word must start with the last letter of the word before it. Words have at least three letters, and a letter can be used more than once, as long as it is not two letters in a row on the same side. The goal is to use all twelve letters in as few words as possible.

A Letter Boxed example

For a box with top TRA, right OEN, bottom MCL and left SIP, the solver finds 1,526 playable words and 640 two-word solutions. The first five are COMPLAINTS then SERIES, COMPLAINTS then STORE, PELICANS then STORM, COMPLAINS then STORE, and COMPLAINT then TERMS. COMPLAINTS ends in S, the first letter of SERIES, and the two words together use all twelve letters. The longest playable word is SOCIOPOLITICAL, with 14 letters.

A box with top ABC, right DEF, bottom GHI and left JKL has only 128 playable words, none longer than seven letters, and no chain of three words or fewer, so the page lists the words only.

How the solver searches

The solver checks chains of one, two or three words. It looks for chains of two words only when there are fewer than 30 one-word solutions, and for three words only when nothing shorter works, with a limit of 200 results and about 2.5 seconds. It does not search for chains of four or more words. If nothing of three words or fewer covers all twelve letters, the page lists the playable words so you can build a longer chain yourself.

Frequently asked questions

How do you play Letter Boxed for free?

The puzzle itself is published by The New York Times, so check their site to see how to access it. This Letter Boxed solver is free to use, requires no sign-up, and runs in your browser. Use it to check your chains rather than as a replacement for the official puzzle.

Does the Letter Boxed solver give today’s answer?

No. The solver does not support daily puzzles or answers. Type in the twelve letters from the puzzle you are working on, and it will search for chains from those letters.

Can a word use the same letter twice in a row in Letter Boxed?

No. Two letters in a row cannot come from the same side of the box, and the same letter is always on the same side as itself. A letter can still appear twice in a word if the two copies are not next to each other, or in different words.

Why does the game refuse a word the solver lists?

The solver uses a general English word list with about 52,600 words, which is not the game’s own list. The game’s list leaves out proper nouns and some rare or offensive words, so a suggested word may be refused. If that happens, choose another chain from the solutions or the playable word list.

What are some Letter Boxed tips?

Start with a long word that touches many sides of the box, then look for a next word that begins with its last letter and uses the letters you still need. Words that end in common starting letters such as S, E, T or R tend to chain easily. If the puzzle has a letter that appears in few words, such as X, Q or Z, plan the chain around it first, because it is the hardest to cover.

What does Letter Boxed mean?

The name refers to the box itself. The letters sit around the sides of a square, and each word is played by linking letters across those sides.

Related tools

• Spelling Bee Solver: Use it for a puzzle built around one center letter and a set of outer letters.
• Word Finder: Use it to search for words that match letters or patterns you already have.
• Anagram Solver: Use it to rearrange a set of letters into real words.
• Word Unscrambler: Use it when you have a scrambled word and need the correct spelling.
• Text Twist Solver: Use it to find every word hidden in a set of scrambled letters.
• Word Wheel Solver: Use it for a circular letter puzzle where each word must use the center letter.
• Boggle Solver: Use it to find words traced through a grid of adjacent letters.
• Wordle Solver: Use it to narrow down a five-letter word from the feedback you have received.