BASE FINDER

User Guide

LetterLab finds sets of words related by wordplay principles, for use in constructing and solving word puzzles.

GETTING STARTED

1. Load a wordlist. The public domain ENABLE (English) wordlist loads automatically when the page opens. You can also load your own .txt file into any of the numbered slots at the top of the page — one word per line. Load more than one slot and they will be combined into a single pool.
2. (Optional) Filter the pool. Use MUST MATCH / MUST NOT MATCH, just below the wordlist panel, to narrow the pool using wildcard patterns (* for any run of letters, . or ? for exactly one letter, [a-dswz] for a letter chosen from a range and/or set) before you search.
3. Pick a Wordplay Type from the list on the left — each is a different kind of wordplay. See below for what they do.
4. Set the parameters — usually a length range plus a checkbox or two for variants or additional constraints, then hit SEARCH.
5. Review the results. They stream in as they are found. SORT them by length or alphabetically, COPY them to your clipboard, or hit STOP to stop the search at that point. Very large searches are capped at 2,000 results so your browser does not overload.

Several Wordplay Types have checkboxes for one or more of these options: BIGRAM (work with 2 letters at a time instead of 1), REVERSED (reverse the manipulation result before it is checked against the wordlist), WELL-MIXED (typically requiring that words in the set do not share a tetragram, to help weed out related words), and requiring at least one result to also appear in WORDLIST 1 (useful when Wordlist 1 is themed or limited to simple words). Mix and match them to refine a search.

CREATE WORDLIST (button above the wordplay types) is a bit different — it's not a search, it's a wordlist-building tool. Point it at plain text or a messy wordlist, strip out spaces, punctuation and/or digits, keep only duplicated (or only non-duplicated) entries, find-and-replace text, and more, then receive a combined list (capped at 500,000 words) that you can copy and save for future use.

WORDPLAY TYPES

ALTERNADE
Take every Nth letter &mdash of Word 1 to form the other N words.
(M)oJ(A)vE(D)eS(E)rT → MADE, OVER, JEST
BLANAGRAM ("BLANK ANAGRAM")
Change one letter to a different one, then scramble.
(A)LBACORE → BAC(H)ELOR
CHANGEOVER
Delete a letter from Word 1, then add a different letter in a different location, to get Word 2.
COCRE(A)TE → CO(N)CRETE
CHARADE/LINKADE
Split Word 1 to get Word 2 and Word 3. (In LINKADE mode, one letter at the split goes to both the end of Word 2 and the start of Word 3.)
SCARCITY → SCAR, CITY
CHOP 'N' SWAP
Chop a letter out of Word 1, then swap and join two remaining pieces to get Word 2.
CHEES(I)LY → LYCHEES
CONSONANTCY
Strip the vowels (AEIOUY) from two words; string of consonants must match exactly.
OSCARWILDE and SCRAWLED both reduce to SCRWLD
DELETION
Delete one letter from Word 1 to get Word 2.
VA(R)NISH → VANISH
HEART TRANSPLANT
An interior string (the "heart") is removed from Word 1 to get Word 3; the heart is then inserted into Word 2 to get Word 4.
SE(RMON)IZE + WAGER → SEIZE + WA(RMON)GER
INTERLOCK
Weave the letters of Word 2 and Word 3 together in order (not strictly alternating) to get Word 1.
(KA)MA(LAHA)R(RI)S → KALAHARI + MARS
LETTER CHANGE
Change one letter in Word 1 to a different letter to get Word 2.
DIS(C)OUNT → DISMOUNT
LETTERBANK
Word 1 has no repeated letters; each other word uses each letter in Word 1 at least once and no other letters. In BANKLESS mode the "bank" (Word 1) is not constrained to be a word.
(POETRY) → REPERTORY, PROTOTYPE
MUTUAL REPLACEMENT
Two letters, at least one of which appears more than once, change into each other everywhere they appear in Word 1 to get Word 2.
S(N)A(P)(P)ER → SPANNER (N becomes P and P becomes N)
PALINDROME DELETION
Delete a palindrome (a string that reads the same forwards and backwards) from Word 1 to get Word 2.
KIL(OTO)N → KILN
PASTEOVER
Remove a letter from Word 1 and paste it over another letter, overwriting it, to get Word 2.
I(A)NFL(E)MING → INFLAMING
TERMINAL DELETION
Delete the first letter and last letter from Word 1 to get Word 2.
(B)RAVEL(Y) → RAVEL
TERMINAL LETTER CHANGE
Change the first letter and last letter in Word 1 to new letters to get Word 2.
(P)ATCHWOR(K) → WATCHWORD
TRANSDELETION
Delete one letter, then scramble the rest. This can be automated up to 3 steps, or point it at a specific word to see all of its transadditions (+ a letter) transdeletions (- a letter).
SHATTERPROO(F) → TRA(P)SHOOTER → SORETHROAT
TRANSPOSAL (ANAGRAM)
Scramble Word 1 to get Word 2.
MOUNTAINEER → ENUMERATION
WELDED TRANSPOSAL
Join Word 1 and Word 2 and split the result exactly in half — the first half can be scrambled to get the second half.
POOCH + STETHOSCOPE → POOCHSTE/THOSCOPE
WORD DELETION
Pull Word 2 out of Word 1 to get Word 3.
CLAMBAKE − LAMB → CAKE