Jumble Solver

Type the four jumbled words. Tap the circled letters to solve the cartoon answer.

How to solve a Jumble

A Jumble has four scrambled words and a cartoon with a pun for an answer. Type each scrambled word in its own box. The solver looks for words that use exactly those letters, so you see the real answer instead of a long list of shorter words. When only one word fits, it is selected for you.

In the puzzle, some squares of each answer are circled. Tap those letters on the solved words: they collect in the Circled letters box below. Then type the length of each word in the cartoon answer, separated by commas. The solver rearranges the circled letters into phrases that match, most common words first.

Worked example: the puzzle above

In the example puzzle, BLONE, GRITE, RMHIT and XILEE each have exactly one answer in our word list: NOBLE, TIGER, MIRTH and EXILE. Tapping the circled squares collects the letters N, O, T, I, M and E. Asked for any answer of up to three words, those 6 letters make 24 phrases. Type the word lengths 2,4 and the list shrinks to 13, with NO TIME at number 2. The pun in the clue does the rest: a busy chef has no time.

Why it only shows words that use every letter

A Jumble answer always uses every letter of its scramble, so this solver looks only for exact matches. An all-purpose anagram solver would show 27 words for BLONE, nearly all of them shorter words that cannot be the answer. Exact matching leaves one word, so you can move straight on to the circled letters.

When a scramble has more than one answer

Some letter sets spell several words. TMIE, for example, could be EMIT, ITEM, MITE or TIME. The solver shows each one as a button; pick the one that fits, and its letters become tiles you can tap. Not sure which is right? Solve the other words first. The circled letters from the rest of the puzzle, and the cartoon itself, usually settle it.

How the answer phrases are ranked

Every phrase in the list uses all of the circled letters and matches the word lengths you typed. To put the likely answer near the top, each phrase is scored by how often its words appear in everyday English, using frequencies from the open wordfreq project. Phrases with fewer words come first. The least common word in a phrase also counts, so a single obscure word pulls an otherwise ordinary phrase down the list.

Using it on a phone

Each box takes up to 15 letters and ignores case. The boxes turn off autocorrect, so your phone will not "fix" a scramble into a real word before the solver sees it. Results appear as you type; the Solve button simply closes the keyboard so you can see them. The page address keeps your four words, so you can bookmark a puzzle and finish it later.

Tips

• Not sure which letters are circled? Type them straight into the Circled letters box.
• If the answer has a word in quotes or a hyphen, count only the letters.
• Can't read a letter? Type ? in its place, up to 2 per word.
• Leave the word lengths empty to see every phrase the circled letters make, up to three words.
• Stuck on one word? Open the anagram solver and switch to "use some letters" to explore.

About the word list

The four words are checked against 185,681 US English words, or 188,100 if your browser prefers UK English. The cartoon answer uses a shorter list of 34,401 common words, so real phrases come before strings of rare words. Anagramify does not copy the newspaper puzzle or publish daily answers; it solves the letters you type, on your device, so it works for any puzzle of this kind, old or new.