Words Containing
Enter any letters and find every English word that contains them. Perfect for word games, puzzles, and vocabulary exploration.
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Find Words That Contain Any Letters
Type a letter sequence and this tool returns every English word that contains it anywhere inside. Looking for words with "ph", "oo", or "qu"? You will find them all here instantly.
This is especially useful for word games where you need to play through specific letters already on the board, or for puzzles that require words containing a given combination.
Use Cases
Scrabble & board games: Find words that play through existing tiles on the board. Puzzles: When a clue says "contains XY", search and confirm. Learning: Explore word families built around common letter combinations like "ight", "ough", or "tion".
Letter Patterns That Unlock Vocabulary
English is full of recurring letter clusters, and learning to spot them makes both spelling and word games easier. Digraphs like ph, sh, ch, and th represent single sounds; trigraphs like igh (light, night) and clusters like ough (though, cough, through) appear again and again. Searching for one of these patterns pulls up an entire family of related words at once.
This pattern view is a genuine learning aid. A student who searches "tion" sees dozens of nouns built the same way; a puzzler who searches "qu" is reminded that Q is almost always followed by U. Seeing the pattern repeated across many words makes it stick far better than memorising individual spellings.
Playing Through Tiles on the Board
In Scrabble and Words With Friends the board fills up with letters you must build around. When a valuable square sits just past an existing tile, you often need a word that contains that letter in a specific spot rather than starting or ending with it. This tool is built for exactly that situation.
Search for the letter or pair you need to play through, scan the results by length, and you will quickly spot a word that threads the tiles together. Then verify it against your rack with the Scrabble Word Finder or the Anagram Solver.
Fun Combinations Worth Exploring
Beyond practical play, searching for unusual letter runs is simply fascinating. Try zz (buzz, dazzle, pizzazz), the double oo (balloon, cocoon), the rare xh (exhale, exhibit), or the surprising mn (autumn, hymn, solemn). Each search reveals a small pocket of the language you may never have noticed.
These explorations are great for trivia, teaching, and simply appreciating how English fits its letters together — and they often turn up the exact obscure word a crossword or puzzle was asking for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the search match the exact sequence?+
Yes. The letters must appear together in that exact order somewhere in the word. For example, "oo" matches "book" and "moonlight" but not "onto".
Can I search for a single letter?+
Yes, though single-letter searches return very large lists. Use the length filter chips to narrow results to a specific word length.
How is this different from the word unscrambler?+
The unscrambler finds words you can build from a set of letters (each used once). This tool finds words that contain a specific letter sequence anywhere inside, regardless of what other letters are in the word.
What are some interesting letter combinations to search?+
Try searching for unusual combinations like "zz" (buzz, pizza, jazz), "ph" (phone, graph), "ough" (though, through, enough), or "xp" (expert, explore). You will discover surprising words you may not have known.
Can I combine this with other tools?+
Yes. Use this tool to find words containing specific letters, then use the Word Unscrambler or Scrabble Word Finder to check if they can be played from your current tiles.
What is a digraph or trigraph?+
A digraph is two letters that make a single sound (such as "sh", "ch", or "ph"), and a trigraph is three letters that do the same (such as "igh" in "night"). Searching for these clusters is a great way to study spelling patterns and build word families.
Can this help me solve crosswords?+
Yes. When a crossword answer must contain a specific letter at a known position, search that letter or pair here and use the length filter to match the number of squares. It narrows a long list down to just the words that could fit.