Is there a time limit in Word Wheel?

No. The clock under the board counts up so you can see how long a wheel took, and nothing at all happens when it gets large. A big wheel is meant to be left open and come back to; the board saves itself between visits.

What happens if I close a wheel early?

It scores where it stands, reveals the nine-letter word and then lists every familiar word you did not find, longest first. That list is the part worth reading — it is where you discover the nine letters spelled something you would have sworn was not a word.

Does a hint give the nine-letter word away?

No. Each hint uncovers one more of its opening letters and costs 2 points, and it stops at four of the nine. Stopping there rather than at eight matters: the word spends every tile once, so eight letters would leave the ninth as the only tile nobody had used, which is the answer rather than a hint. Buying the same hint twice costs nothing, and once you have found the nine, later hints point at the shortest word still missing instead.

Can I play Word Wheel offline?

Yes. The dictionary and the generator are both in the page, so once it has loaded there is nothing to fetch. That is also why a wheel is a pure function of its puzzle number: there is no server to ask what today's letters are.

How to Play Word Wheel

Nine letters sit in a wheel with one of them in the centre. Make words of three letters or more using only those nine letters; every word must contain the centre one, and each letter may be used only as often as it appears on the board. Words score by length — one point for a three, two for a four, and 25 for the nine-letter word that every wheel is guaranteed to hold.

The rules, step by step

1Nine letters, one in the middleEight letters sit in a ring around a ninth. All nine are usable; the middle one is the only one that is compulsory in every word.
2Every word must use the centre letterA word built from the outer eight alone does not count, however good it is. This is the rule that makes the puzzle a puzzle rather than a plain anagram.
3Three letters is the minimumThree-letter words score 1 point each and are perfectly legal. Two-letter words are not accepted, however common they are.
4Each letter is spent once per wordA letter may be used as many times as it appears on the wheel and no more, so most letters may be used once and a duplicated one twice. Tiles already spent by the word you are spelling are greyed out.
5Spell the word, then submit itTap the letters or type them, and press Enter. Backspace deletes the last letter, Escape clears the whole word, and the space bar turns the wheel without changing the puzzle.
6Score by length, and hunt the nineA three scores 1, a four scores 2, and the scale rises to 25 for the word that spends all nine letters. Every wheel is guaranteed to hold one of those.
7Aim for a target, and stop when you likeGood, Very good and Excellent are 20%, 35% and 50% of the familiar words on that wheel. There is no clock and no limit on attempts — close the wheel when you are done and it reveals the nine and lists what you missed.

Try it — the rules above, running

Loading the word list…

0 words

1 more for Good

Good 1
Very good 2
Excellent 3

Found · 0

Nothing yet.

Words0/0Score0/0Time0:00Puzzle#20260918

New wheel deals nine fresh letters at the size you last chose, Turn moves the outer eight without changing the puzzle, and Hint uncovers one more opening letter of the nine-letter word for 2 points, up to four of the nine — it stops well short of the answer, and a hint that repeats itself is free. The three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds today’s shared wheel, the wheel sizes, a close-this-wheel button and the keyboard shortcuts. There are no letter shortcuts, because the letters are how you type.

Your statistics · standard

Played: 0
Won: 0
Win rate: 0%
Streak: 0
Best streak: 0
Best time: —
Best score: —

This wheel size

36 to 75 familiar words, 52 in the middle of the range. The size most people mean by a word wheel: half an hour of finding things, with the nine-letter word still out there at the end of it.

The targets

Good1 words · 20% of this wheel
Very good2 words · 35% of this wheel
Excellent3 words · 50% of this wheel

Reaching Very good counts as a win in the statistics panel.

Keyboard

A – Z: Add that letter, if the wheel still has a free one
Enter: Submit the word
Backspace: Delete the last letter
Esc: Clear the word
Space: Turn the wheel

How do you start a word wheel?

1Read the centre letter firstIt is in every answer, so it is the only fixed point the puzzle has. Everything you look for from here contains it.
2Take the threes and fours you can already seeTwo or three obvious short words get you onto the board and, more usefully, show you which letter pairs this wheel is comfortable with.
3Check which endings existLook for -ING, -ED, -ER, -EST and -S among the nine. Each one you have is a shelf of words; each one you do not have is a search you can skip.
4Go after the nine-letter wordEvery wheel has one and it is worth 25 points — 15% of everything a typical wheel is worth. Finding it usually turns up several shorter words on the way.
5Turn the wheel and go round againWhen nothing new appears, turn the ring. The puzzle does not change but what you can see in it does.

What makes a word legal on the wheel?

It contains the centre letter at least once.
It is three letters or longer.
Every letter in it is one of the nine on the board.
No letter is used more often than it appears on the board — which for most letters means once.
It is in the dictionary. Obscurity is never a reason for rejection; the validation list has 172,823 words in it.

Nothing else is checked. There is no penalty for a wrong guess, no limit on attempts, and no clock — the timer under the board is there to be ignored if you want to ignore it. A letter your word has already spent is greyed out on the wheel, so the one-use rule is visible rather than something you have to remember.

How many points is each word worth?

Scoring by length
Word length	Points	Roughly how many per wheel
3	1	12
4	2	18
5	4	11
6	6	5
7	9	1
8	12	0
9	25	1

The right-hand column is the median count on a standard wheel, and it is the whole argument for the scoring curve: the wheel is mostly short words, so short words have to be cheap or nothing else would ever be worth looking for. A hint costs 2 points and uncovers one more opening letter of the nine, up to four of the nine letters and no further.

How many words do you need to finish?

Very good, which is 35% of the familiar words on that wheel, records a win and adds to your streak. Good is 20% and Excellent is 50%, and all three counts are printed under the board from the first second, so you always know what you are aiming at. On a median standard wheel of 52 words that is 10, 18 and 26.

If a wheel is too big or too small for the time you have, the three-dot menu changes the size: small wheels hold 15 to 35 familiar words, standard wheels 36 to 75, and big wheels 76 and up. Whatever you pick, closing the wheel reveals the nine-letter word and lists every familiar word you did not find, longest first.

How do you win more often?

Work outwards from the centre letterIt is in every single answer, so it is the only letter you can plan around. Run the other eight past it as pairs, in both orders, and you will find that most of a wheel's words hang off two or three combinations the centre makes comfortable.
Count the tiles before you commit to a long wordBecause nothing may be reused, a nine-letter candidate has to match the board letter for letter. Checking that a word does not want two of something the wheel only shows once takes two seconds and saves you typing out a whole word to be told no.
Check which endings the wheel actually holds-ING, -ED, -ER, -EST and -S each unlock a shelf of answers, and each needs every one of its letters present and unspent. Ten seconds spent working out which endings exist tells you what shape the whole puzzle is, and which searches you can skip entirely.
Take the threes and fours, then leave them aloneThey are 61% of a standard wheel's list and only 29% of its score, so grinding them is the slowest possible route to a target. Write down the ones you can see in the first minute, then spend the rest of the time on sixes and above, which are worth three to twelve times as much each.
Say the vowels out loudMost wheels hold three or four vowels, and English will not put four consonants together without one. Pronouncing an awkward cluster is faster than spelling it: if you cannot say it, it is usually not a word, and if you can, it usually is.
Turn the wheel when you stallAfter a few minutes the eye settles into a fixed ring and stops seeing combinations that were there all along. Turning changes nothing — same nine letters, same centre, same answers — and it reliably shakes two or three more words loose.

Common questions about word wheel

Is there a time limit in Word Wheel?: No. The clock under the board counts up so you can see how long a wheel took, and nothing at all happens when it gets large. A big wheel is meant to be left open and come back to; the board saves itself between visits.
What happens if I close a wheel early?: It scores where it stands, reveals the nine-letter word and then lists every familiar word you did not find, longest first. That list is the part worth reading — it is where you discover the nine letters spelled something you would have sworn was not a word.
Does a hint give the nine-letter word away?: No. Each hint uncovers one more of its opening letters and costs 2 points, and it stops at four of the nine. Stopping there rather than at eight matters: the word spends every tile once, so eight letters would leave the ninth as the only tile nobody had used, which is the answer rather than a hint. Buying the same hint twice costs nothing, and once you have found the nine, later hints point at the shortest word still missing instead.
Can I play Word Wheel offline?: Yes. The dictionary and the generator are both in the page, so once it has loaded there is nothing to fetch. That is also why a wheel is a pure function of its puzzle number: there is no server to ask what today's letters are.

Ready to stop reading? Play word wheel on the full board, with controls and statistics tailored to that game.