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Jumble Solver

Enter one of your daily Jumble scrambles and see every valid English anagram in seconds. The newspaper Jumble almost always uses 5-, 6- or 7-letter words, and each scramble usually has only one or two anagrams — enough to identify the right answer at a glance.

Solve all four Jumble words, then look at the circled letters in your answers. Type those into the box above (or the anagram solver) to crack the final cartoon caption.

Type the Jumble scramble exactly as printed. Uses every letter, exactly once.

Options — narrow results
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A short history of the daily Jumble

The Jumble puzzle first appeared in 1954, created by Martin Naydel. It's now syndicated in more than 600 newspapers and has been a staple of the American puzzle page for over 70 years. Modern Jumbles are created by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek and combine a set of scrambled words with a cartoon whose caption reveals a wordplay-heavy punchline.

The daily format is four scrambles (two 5-letter, two 6-letter) plus the caption. The Sunday Jumble is bigger — six scrambles including a 7-letter — and the caption is longer. Kids' Jumble uses 3- and 4-letter words.

Solving Jumble puzzles by hand

Skilled solvers look for common letter patterns rather than trying random rearrangements. Some quick heuristics:

  • Look for -ING, -ED, -ER, -ION, -TION — if the scramble contains I-N-G or E-D, one of those endings is almost certain.
  • Vowel clusters — vowel pairs like OU, EA, AI, IE, EI usually stay together in the answer.
  • Uncommon consonant clusters — TH, CH, SH, WH, and consonant blends BL, CR, PL, ST, SP anchor words.
  • Trust the frequency — E, A, R, I, O, T are the most common letters. If your scramble has three of them, it's probably a very common word.

The cartoon caption trick

After solving all four scrambles, each answer will have one or two circled letters. Collect those in order (top-to-bottom) into a small "letter bank" — this is your final scramble. Look at the cartoon's speech bubble or scene for a hint: the caption is nearly always a pun or wordplay matching the picture.

Enter the letter bank into the box above and every valid English word in that bank appears. The cartoon usually reveals which word (or short phrase) is the punchline.

Common Jumble anagram traps

  • ANGLE / GLEAN / ANGEL — all valid, only one usually fits the cartoon.
  • STEAM / TEAMS / MEATS / MATES — four possibilities from one scramble.
  • STONE / TONES / NOTES / ONSET — same trick, different letters.
  • TAILOR / RIALTO — a favourite Jumble setter's ambiguity.

When the solver returns multiple options, choose the one whose sense fits the cartoon caption's setup or punchline.

FAQs

What is a Jumble puzzle?

Jumble is the daily newspaper puzzle by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek where you unscramble four scrambled words, then use highlighted letters from those answers to solve a final cartoon caption.

Does this solve the cartoon answer too?

It solves each of the four scrambled words. For the final cartoon caption, unscramble your four answers first, take the circled letters, and paste those into the box above to find the phrase.

Why does my solved word have anagrams I don't expect?

Most Jumble scrambles have more than one valid anagram. The Jumble editor picks the one that fits the cartoon's context — but if you want context help, use the cartoon caption as a hint after seeing all candidates.

How long are typical Jumble words?

The four daily scrambles are almost always 5 or 6 letters. The Sunday Jumble often uses 7.

Can I use this for Jumble Crosswords or Jumble Kids?

Yes — any newspaper or app puzzle that gives you a scrambled letter set works the same way.