Unscrambling words can be frustrating and difficult, especially if you have to do it often during the course of your job or study. Though it may seem like an impossible task, there are several strategies you can use to make this effortless process as easy as possible. Here are five tips to help you effortlessly unscramble words and become an expert unscrambler in no time at all!
Use a Scrabble Dictionary
The easiest and best way to unscramble words is by using a Scrabble dictionary. If you are not sure about the word, type it into the search bar on the website and see if any matches come up. If there are a lot of matches, try narrowing down your search by typing in parts of the word like difficult or mountain. Then, when you find the word you are looking for, make sure you read through all of its possible definitions until you find one that makes sense.
Spot Word Fragments and Make Smaller Words
One of the best ways to get better at unscrambling words is to understand how to identify certain phrases and parts of words. To form a word, it would be helpful to be mindful of the meanings of prefixes and suffixes (here is a list of the most used prefixes and suffixes). Remove suffixes and prefixes, and what you’re left with is less combinations for which the remaining words can be sorted. Mathematicians refer to this concept as permutations, which means arranging any group of letters in as many different sequences as possible. When there are six letters in a word, there are a significantly larger number of sequences than there are when there are only four letters. You can guess what sequence will unscramble the word if you go through it in your head. For example, one strategy for doing so is to combine common prefixes and suffixes with what is left in the word.
Use the Advantage of Two Same Letters
One of the easiest ways to come up with a word from unscrambled letters is to try finding the same two letters and pairing them up. This unlocks many possibilities as there are many double letters in the English language.
Check out some examples of the most common double letters: EE, FF, LL, MM, OO, SS, and TT
EE – deed,feed,week,teen,weep,beep
FF – earmuffs,cliff,office,staff,handcuffs,daffodil
LL – bell,sell,bull,doll,small
MM – comment,dilemma,skimmer,glimmer,drummer
OO – moose,proof,goose,ooze,poof,boost
SS – mess,fuss,hiss,kiss,boss
TT – bitten,butter,cotton,bottle,swatter,bittern
Using a Digraph
Basically, a digraph is any combination of two letters that produces a single sound. The English language has many distinguishing digraphs to work with. The five most common digraphs are AI, EA, OI, SH, and TH.
For example:
AI – brain, drain, plain, lair, rain
EA – sweat, cheat, stream, bear, break
OI – adroid, joint, lion, groin, disjoin
SH – shred, shock, shelf, shop, shoulder
TH – thin, thumb, through, third,
Practice
Just with anything in life, practice makes perfect. Whenever you feel lost in a word jumble, try trial-and-error letter combinations until you find one you can use. You can try a word unscrambler or anagram solver if you can’t figure out what the letters are! Enter the letters you have and it’ll give you the appropriate words. As an example, if you input FIATR in the generator, you will get ten four- and five-letter words.
After reading this guide, we hope you’re more prepared to do well on the next unscramble puzzle and feel confident in a future game of Scrabble or Word with Friends. Make sure you’re having fun, don’t forget that!
