Word Wheel guide
Word wheel solver tips: how to find the nine-letter word
Look for an ending first. Set aside the letters of a common ending such as ‑ING, ‑ED, ‑ER, ‑TION or ‑URE, or a beginning such as RE‑, UN‑ or AD‑, and the letters that are left often spell the rest of the word on their own. If no ending fits, pair up letters that travel together (CH, TH, QU, CK) and build outwards from the centre letter.
The rules in a minute
A word wheel (some newspapers call it a target puzzle or a nine-letter word puzzle) is a circle of eight letters with a ninth in the middle.
- Every word uses the centre letter. It can come anywhere in the word.
- Four letters or more. Three-letter words do not count.
- Each letter once. If the wheel has two Es you may use two, but no more.
- One word uses all nine. Finding it is the heart of the puzzle.
- No names or abbreviations. Ordinary dictionary words only.
The letters do not have to be next to each other on the wheel: it is an anagram puzzle, not a path puzzle.
Finding the nine-letter word
Staring at nine letters and waiting for the word to appear works about one time in five. This method works far more often.
- Count the vowels. Three or four vowels in nine letters is ordinary. Only two means consonant clusters such as STR, NGTH or CHR. Five or more points to endings such as ‑ATION, ‑EOUS or ‑IOUS, or to a word with vowel pairs such as EA, OU and IE.
- Hunt for an ending. See whether the wheel holds ‑ING, ‑ED, ‑ER, ‑LY, ‑TION, ‑MENT, ‑NESS, ‑ABLE, ‑URE or a plain ‑S. Take those letters away in your head. Six letters are much easier to unscramble than nine.
- Then a beginning. RE‑, UN‑, DIS‑, PRE‑, CON‑, OUT‑, OVER‑ and AD‑ start a great many long words.
- Try splitting it in two. Many nine-letter words are two short words side by side: BREAK + FAST, SOME + THING, NEWS + PAPER, CLASS + ROOM. If you have already found a good four- or five-letter word, see what the remaining letters spell.
- Glue the pairs. Treat CH, SH, TH, QU, CK and double letters as single tiles. The puzzle shrinks again.
- Shuffle. Your eye locks on to the order the letters are shown in. Press Shuffle (or write the letters in a new circle on paper) and look again. Do it several times.
- Grow a word. Take the longest word you have and try adding one letter at a time, at either end: VENT, EVENT, ADVENT, ADVENTURE.
Prefixes and suffixes to look for
These are the beginnings and endings that turn up most in nine-letter English words. Check for the endings first; they are more common than the beginnings.
| Ending | Letters to spot | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ‑ING | I, N, G | gardening, searching, something |
| ‑ED | E, D | surprised, delivered, completed |
| ‑ER, ‑OR | E or O, R | carpenter, newspaper, professor |
| ‑TION, ‑SION | T or S, I, O, N | education, direction, expansion |
| ‑LY | L, Y | carefully, perfectly, obviously |
| ‑MENT | M, E, N, T | agreement, treatment, amusement |
| ‑NESS | N, E, S, S | happiness, awareness, sweetness |
| ‑ABLE, ‑IBLE | B, L, E | available, miserable, enjoyable |
| ‑URE, ‑AGE, ‑ATE | a vowel, a consonant, E | adventure, orphanage, chocolate |
| ‑OUS, ‑FUL, ‑IVE | O, U, S and so on | dangerous, wonderful, expensive |
| ‑IST, ‑ISE, ‑ITY | I, S or T | guitarist, recognise, celebrity |
| Beginning | Examples |
|---|---|
| RE‑ | recognise, reception, remainder |
| UN‑ | uncertain, underline, unwelcome |
| DIS‑, MIS‑ | discovery, dishonest, mistaking |
| PRE‑, PRO‑ | president, prevented, professor |
| CON‑, COM‑ | confident, condition, community |
| IN‑, IM‑, EX‑ | invisible, important, excellent |
| OUT‑, OVER‑, UNDER‑ | outskirts, overnight, undertake |
| AD‑, AB‑, SUB‑ | adventure, abandoned, submarine |
Letters that go together
English spelling has habits. Knowing them rules out most of the arrangements before you try them.
- Q needs U. If there is a Q, QU is one tile. If there is no U, there is almost certainly no Q either.
- H follows C, S, T, P, W or G. CH, SH, TH, PH, WH and GH account for most Hs in the middle of a word.
- K likes C and N. CK ends a syllable; KN starts a word.
- Two of the same letter usually sit together. LL, SS, EE, OO, TT, FF, RR, NN, PP and MM are the common doubles. Two Es or two As, though, are often apart: GARDENER, BANANA.
- Y is usually at the end. ‑LY, ‑TY, ‑RY, ‑NY and ‑ERY cover most of them.
- V and J are never last, and V is almost never doubled. A V is usually followed by a vowel, most often E.
- Three consonants in a row are nearly always STR, SPR, SCR, THR, SHR, NCH, TCH, NGS or GHT.
A worked example
Worked example
The wheel has V in the centre, and round it A, D, E, E, N, R, T, U.
Count. Four vowels (A, E, E, U) and five consonants: an ordinary mix, so no special pattern to expect.
The rare letter. V is the awkward one, and it must be in every word. V is nearly always followed by a vowel, so think VE‑, VA‑ and ‑VE.
Endings. There is E and D for ‑ED, E and R for ‑ER, and U, R, E for ‑URE. Try ‑URE: that leaves A, D, V, E, N, T. Those six spell ADVENT, and ADVENT + URE is ADVENTURE.
Now the rest. With VENT in mind: VENT, EVENT, VENTED, VENTURE, VENTURED, ADVENT. Swap letters round the V: RAVE, RAVED, RAVEN, NEVER, NERVE, NERVED, EVER, EVEN, VEER. Then the ones that take a second look: TAVERN, VETERAN, AVENUE, VENUE, REVUE, DUVET, EVADE, ADVERT, AVERT.
This wheel has 29 words on its list. Nine is Good, 15 Very good and 20 Excellent, and the paragraph above already names 25.
(This wheel is kept for this page only, so it will never be the day’s puzzle.)
Finding more of the shorter words
- Work in families. One find usually opens several: RAVE gives RAVED and RAVEN; VENT gives EVENT, VENTED and ADVENT. Run each new word through ‑S, ‑ED, ‑ER and ‑ING if the letters are there.
- Change one letter. From NERVE try NEVER; from VANE try VEND and VENT. Moving a single letter is the quickest way through the four- and five-letter words.
- Put the centre letter in each position. First the words that start with it, then the ones that end with it, then the ones with it second. It is slow and it always turns up a few.
- Go back down the lengths. After the long word, look inside it: ADVENTURE holds ADVENT, VENTURE and VENT in order.
- Use a hint for the pattern, not the word. In Word Wheel a hint gives the first two letters and the length of a word you have not found. It costs nothing but is counted on your share card.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the centre letter. The most common slip: a perfectly good word that leaves it out.
- Using a letter twice. Check for doubles before you count on a second E or S.
- Reading round the wheel. The letters can be used in any order; neighbours on the wheel mean nothing.
- Only looking for nouns. Verbs and their endings make up a large share of most lists.
- Giving up on the long word too early. Find six or seven short words first. They show you which letters like to sit together, and the long word often follows.
Questions
What are the rules of a word wheel?
Make as many words as you can from the nine letters. Every word must use the centre letter, must have at least four letters, and may use each letter only as often as it appears on the wheel. At least one word uses all nine letters. Proper nouns, abbreviations and hyphenated words do not count.
Is there always a nine-letter word?
Yes. Every Daily Wheel on Yuzool is built from the letters of an everyday nine-letter word, so there is always at least one, and occasionally two that are anagrams of each other.
How many words is a good score?
It depends on the wheel, because some sets of letters make far more words than others. Word Wheel sets its targets from the day’s own list: Good is about 30% of the words, Very good 50% and Excellent 70%. On a typical day that is roughly 10, 17 and 24 words out of 35.
Do plurals and verb endings count?
Yes. If the wheel has an S, a D or the letters I, N and G, forms such as RAVES, RAVED and RAVING are separate words, provided each still uses the centre letter.
Does Word Wheel use British or American spelling?
The answers use British spelling, so COLOUR and CENTRE are on the lists. Common American spellings such as COLOR and CENTER are accepted when you enter them and count as bonus words.
Why was my word not accepted?
The word list holds about 72,000 English words of three to nine letters, but no names, abbreviations or offensive words. Rare words are accepted as bonus words rather than counted towards the targets, so you are never asked to find a word most people have not met.
Is the word wheel free?
Yes. Today’s wheel, the last seven days, yesterday’s answers and the first 100 Crossings levels are free, with no sign-up and no adverts. Word Wheel Pro (a one-off $1.99) adds the rest of the 360 levels, every past wheel and three looks.