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How to Solve Word Scrambles

Let Your Brain Do What Is Natural to Solve a Scramble
Houghton Mifflin

Free Word Unscramble For You

You can teach yourself to solve word scrambles by understanding a few rules of how the human mind works. Our minds seek to find a pattern in everything that we see in order to make sense of the world around us.

By learning to use a simple trick, you can narrow the possibilities of what a scrambled word may be and get the solution quickly.

1. Rearrange with vowel as second letter

Rearrange your word scramble so you create several different versions of the scramble, each with a vowel as the second letter.

2. Use the letter R as the second letter (if possible)

Make a second set of possible words that have an "r" as the second letter if you have that letter.

3. If "er" use as last two letters and a vowel as the second letter

If your letters contain an "e" and a "r", make a third set of possible words that have "-er" as the last two letters and a vowel as the second letter.

4. Beginning and the End of Words

Look at each new set of scrambled letters and see if any of them "fall into place" and you can see the solution to the puzzle. Often, just seeing the beginning or ending letters of a word will be enough to prompt you into recognizing the word. If not, proceed to the next step.

5. Look in the dictionary with beginnings

Take the first set of letters that you rearranged with a vowel as the second letter and look in the dictionary for words that have each of your first two letter combinations. Scan down the page and find the word that uses the remainder of your scrambled letters.

Tip

Look for "-ed" or "-es" possible endings in your word. Often, the "-er", "-ed" or "-es" letters will confuse your recognition of the word until you can separate the ending from the actual word.

Don't give up!​ With practice you can solve a word scramble with ease. If you are having difficulty, it is only a matter of retraining your mind to recognize patterns and to associate the patterns with words you already know.

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