REBUS ASSISTANT

add & subtract letters to reach the Target

Builds letter-based rebuses to form a Target, such as: APEX + RAMP + LONE - APRON = EXAMPLE. Addition adds a word to the end of the string. Subtraction removes a word left-to-right in the only way possible (this can optionally be limited to adjacent letters).

Search

One word per line, letters only
Optionally select the Starting Word
Words must have at least letters
Words must have at most letters
Words must AVERAGE at least letters
String length at most Target length plus
Cap filtered wordlist at
No shared string of with Target
No shared string of within Found Words
These limits do not apply to Target or Optional Starter
Subtracted words must be contiguous:
BAT + ACORN - TACO = BARN [BA(T/ACO)RN]
Applies to the first Found Word
Load a wordlist to begin.
No puzzles yet.Results stream in as they're found, and the search is randomized — run it again on the same settings for a different set.
How the rules are applied

Word count. Min Words and Max Words count every term in the expression, including the first one. CARP + ENTER = CARPENTER is two words.

Adding. A + word is appended to the end of the current string.

Subtracting. A − word's letters come out of the current string left to right — not necessarily side by side, unless Subtract adjacent letters only is on.

Ambiguity. A subtraction is allowed only when it can't result in two different strings. VOTES + LET - VOLE = TEST is fine (removing V-O-L-E in left-to-right order can only leave TEST). But TOTES + LET − TOLE would be rejected, since either T in TOTES could be used, leaving different strings as a result. Removals from doubled letters are allowed, such as SALOON − O = SALON, because the resulting strings are the same.

Constraints. The letter-count, shared-string, and pool-size rules narrow the wordlist once, when you press start — the status line reports how many words survived. The shared-string rule compares each candidate against the target: with the default 4, no word may contain any four consecutive letters that also appear consecutively in the target, which rules out the lazy “long word minus its junk” puzzle. The pool is re-drawn on every run, so repeat runs see a different random slice. A second shared-string rule applies between the chosen words themselves, so no two of them echo each other; your Starter and the target are exempt from both.

Word length and mean. Every word the search picks sits inside the letter-count range, and their mean length must reach the figure you set — that one is checked on the finished puzzle, not word by word, so a short word is fine as long as others carry it.

String length. The working string never exceeds the target’s length plus your allowance. A Starter of your own may break that rule — if it does, the search’s first move must be a subtraction that brings it back under.

House rules. No word is used twice, the target itself is never used as a term, and the string never hits the target early — the puzzle ends on it.