How to play Word Scramble
Word Scramble gives you the letters of an everyday word in a jumbled order. You put them back in the right order to find the word. There is no time limit, wrong guesses cost nothing, and a hint is always there if you need one.
Step by step
Look at the letters
You are given the letters of one word, mixed up. Every letter must be used, and each one only once.
Tap a letter
Tap a tile to move it into the next empty square of your answer. Tap a letter in your answer to send it back.
Try a few shapes
Look for common pairs such as TH, CH, ING or ER, and try likely first letters. Shuffle the tiles to see them in a new order.
Check your word
When every square is filled, your word is checked. If it is not right, simply move letters around and try again.
Ask for a hint
Stuck? A hint puts the next correct letter in place and fixes it there. A word found with hints still counts as solved.
Finish the five words
The daily puzzle has five words, from 4 letters up to 8. Find all five to complete the day and keep your streak going.
The full rules
What you need
Word Scramble needs nothing more than a set of letters. On GamesBento they are shown as wooden tiles that you tap. On paper, you can write the mixed-up letters in a row and cross them off as you use them.
The aim
Each puzzle hides one everyday word. Its letters have been mixed up, and your job is to put them back in the right order. Every letter must be used, and each tile only once.
How to play
The empty squares at the top show how long the word is. The tiles below are the letters you have to use.
- Tap a tile to move it into the next empty square.
- Tap a letter in your answer to send it back to the rack.
- Clear sends all your letters back at once.
- Shuffle mixes up the tiles in the rack. Seeing the letters in a new order is often all it takes for the word to appear.
When every square is filled, your word is checked straight away. If it is right, the tiles turn green and you can go on to the next word. If not, you will see a gentle “not quite” message. Nothing is lost: move some letters around and try again as many times as you like.
You can also play with a keyboard. Type the letters, press Backspace to take one back, Enter to check, and Space to shuffle.
More than one answer
Some sets of letters make more than one word. The letters of LISTEN also spell SILENT, and BREAD can become BEARD. Any word on our list that uses exactly the same letters is accepted.
Hints and showing the word
If you are stuck, press Hint. The next correct letter is placed in its square and fixed there, marked with a small blue dot. You can take as many hints as you need, and a word you finish with hints still counts as solved.
If you would rather move on, choose Show me the word. The answer is shown, and you can carry on with the rest of the puzzle, but that word is marked as shown instead of solved.
The daily puzzle
Every day there are five new words, growing from 4 letters to 8. Everyone gets the same five words on the same date. Finish all five to complete the day; your daily streak counts how many days in a row you have done it.
If you solve all five words without asking to be shown any of them, your result can be added to the weekly leaderboard.
Practice
After the daily puzzle, choose New game and then Practice for as many words as you like. Easy words have 4 or 5 letters, medium words have 6, and hard words have 7 or 8.
Tips for unscrambling
- Find the easy endings. Many words end in -ER, -LE, -ED, -ING or -Y. Put those letters to one side and look at what is left.
- Look for letter pairs that often go together, such as TH, CH, SH, CK, QU and EE.
- Try the vowels. Place the vowels in different gaps between the consonants and say the result out loud.
- Start with a likely first letter. Letters such as S, C, B, P and T start many words.
- Shuffle and look away. A fresh arrangement, or a moment’s rest, often lets the word jump out.
Common questions
What if I find a different word from the one intended?
If it is on our word list and uses exactly the same letters, it counts. Some letter sets make more than one word, such as LISTEN and SILENT, or BREAD and BEARD, and any of them is accepted.
Is there a time limit?
No. Take as long as you like. You can leave in the middle of a puzzle and your letters will be waiting when you come back on the same device.
Do hints stop the word counting?
No. A word you finish with hints still counts as solved. Only a word you ask to be shown is marked as shown rather than solved, and then the day’s puzzle does not count towards the leaderboard.
Is there a new puzzle every day?
Yes. There are five new words every day, and everyone gets the same five on the same date. When you have finished, you can carry on with as many practice words as you like.
Are the words hard?
They are everyday words you would see in a newspaper or hear in the kitchen, such as GARDEN, KETTLE and BRIDGE. Practice lets you choose short, medium or long words.
Where it comes from
Puzzles where the letters of a word are mixed up and must be put back in order have appeared in newspapers and puzzle books for many decades, alongside the crossword. Rearranging letters to make new words, known as making anagrams, is far older still and has long been enjoyed as a parlour game and pastime.
