NYT Letterboxed Solver
Instantly solve any NYT Letterboxed puzzle. Enter your 12 letters and get all possible Letterboxed answers — ranked by fewest words.
Letterboxed Solver
Enter exactly 3 letters per side. All 12 letters must be unique — just like the real NYT Letterboxed puzzle.
How to Use the Letterboxed Solver
Using this tool to find today’s NYT Letterboxed answers takes under 30 seconds.
What is NYT Letterboxed?
NYT Letterboxed is a daily word puzzle game published by The New York Times. It was introduced as part of the NYT Games suite and has become one of the most popular word puzzles alongside Wordle and the Mini Crossword.
The puzzle features a square with 3 letters on each of its 4 sides — 12 unique letters in total. Players must form words using those letters and chain them together so that every letter is used at least once.
What makes NYT Letterboxed uniquely challenging is the constraint that consecutive letters in a word cannot come from the same side of the square. This rules out many common words and requires lateral thinking to find chains that cover all 12 letters in as few words as possible.
Why is Letterboxed so addictive?
Unlike Wordle which has a single answer, Letterboxed rewards creativity — there are often dozens of valid solutions. The challenge is finding the most elegant one, typically in just 2 or 3 words. That pursuit of the perfect 2-word solution keeps players coming back every day.
How the Letterboxed Solver Works
Our solver uses a dictionary-based search algorithm to find every valid Letterboxed solution for your puzzle.
Step 1 — Dictionary filtering
The solver starts with the ENABLE1 word list — a tournament-grade English dictionary with over 170,000 words. It filters this list down to only words that are valid under Letterboxed rules: every letter must appear in the 12-letter puzzle, and no two consecutive letters can come from the same side of the box.
Step 2 — Word chaining with Depth-First Search (DFS)
Valid words are indexed by their first letter. The solver then uses a DFS algorithm to chain words together: each new word must begin with the last letter of the previous word. This mirrors exactly how you play the real NYT Letterboxed game.
Step 3 — Coverage check
After each chain of words, the solver checks whether all 12 letters of the puzzle have been used at least once. If yes, it’s a valid Letterboxed solution. The results are ranked by the fewest number of words, so the cleanest solutions appear first.
Algorithm performance
The solver finds up to 500 solutions in under 3 seconds directly in your browser — no server required. All computation happens locally using JavaScript.
Rules of the NYT Letterboxed Game
Understanding the rules helps you get the most out of the solver and appreciate valid solutions.
Tips for Solving Letterboxed Yourself
- Look for uncommon letters (Q, X, Z, J) first — they’re hardest to place and should anchor your word planning.
- Try to find one long word that covers 6–8 letters. A great first word leaves fewer letters to cover in the second word.
- Think about which letter your first word ends on — that letter must start your next word. Plan the chain, not just individual words.
- Prefixes and suffixes help: words ending in -ING, -TION, -LY often give you good starting letters for a follow-up word.
- If you’re stuck, use this solver to see all valid words for your letters. Sometimes just browsing valid words sparks ideas for manual solving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about NYT Letterboxed and this solver.
NYT Letterboxed is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times. Players connect letters arranged on the sides of a square to form words, chaining them together until all 12 letters are used. The goal is to use as few words as possible — ideally just 2.
The solver filters a 170,000+ word dictionary to valid Letterboxed words (no consecutive same-side letters), then uses a depth-first search to chain words together until all 12 letters are covered. Results are ranked by fewest words.
Yes! Many NYT Letterboxed puzzles have 2-word solutions. The NYT even considers this the ideal outcome. Our solver highlights all 2-word Letterboxed answers with a gold badge so you can spot them immediately.
Use this free tool! Open today’s NYT Letterboxed puzzle, note the 3 letters on each of the 4 sides, enter them into the solver above, and click Solve. You’ll see all valid Letterboxed answers in seconds.
Yes — 100% free, no sign-up, no subscription. The solver runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to any server.
The solver uses the ENABLE1 word list — a standard competitive Scrabble and word game dictionary containing over 170,000 English words. Note that the NYT Letterboxed uses its own curated word list, so there may be minor differences.
Wordle has exactly one correct 5-letter answer each day. Letterboxed has many valid solutions — the creativity lies in finding the most elegant one (typically 2 words). Letterboxed also requires connecting letters across a geometric layout rather than guessing a hidden word.
Yes. The Letterboxed solver is fully responsive and works on all modern mobile browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on iOS and Android.