How the Games Are Made and Checked
How each game is made from your word list, what the checks count afterward, what the page shows when something can't be done, and how links and printing work. Open a section for the details of each game.
How each game is made
Each game is made in your browser by ordinary code, from your word list, your settings, and a seed. The seed starts a random number generator (mulberry32), and every random choice is taken from it in a fixed order, so the same words, settings, and seed give the same set. The rules follow how the games are commonly played. Where common rules leave a choice open, YepWord sets its own rule, described below.
A bingo card is usually a 5 × 5 grid with a free space in the center. YepWord also makes 4 × 4 cards, which have no center square and so no free space. Each card holds this many words:
- 4 × 4: 16 words
- 5 × 5 with a free space: 24 words
- 5 × 5 without a free space: 25 words
For each card, that many different words are picked at random from your list and put in the squares in random order. A card with the same set of words as an earlier card is picked again. With n different words and k squares, there are C(n, k) different sets of k words. When you ask for more cards than that, the sets are used in turn, so each set is used about the same number of times, and a card whose words are in the same squares as an earlier card is shuffled again.
The caller's list numbers your words in the order you entered them. Each card has its number in the top right corner. Cards don't show the numbers of the words.
Common rules don't say whether a unique card means a different set of words or a different layout, so YepWord counts both. Cards with the same set of words win together when the whole card must be covered. Cards with different sets can still win at the same time in other patterns, such as a single line, so a count of 0 repeated sets doesn't mean two cards can't win together. YepWord doesn't call words, check patterns, or pick winners.
Sources for the card and the free space:
Words go in straight lines in 8 directions: across, down, and diagonally, each forward and backward. Spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes are left out, and the letters are shown in capitals.
Longer words go in first. For each word, every place it fits is listed, and one is picked at random. Two words can share a square only where they cross with the same letter, at most one square, and not along the same line. A word isn't placed inside another word. The empty squares are then filled with random letters from A to Z. If a word from your list can then be read somewhere other than its answer because of the filler letters, the filler letters are drawn again, up to 10 times.
A try is complete when every word goes in and no word can be found anywhere other than its answer, apart from a word found inside a longer word that's also placed, such as cat in cats, which can't be avoided.
If you leave the grid size blank, the first size tried is at least as wide as your longest word that fits the largest grid, and has enough squares that your words' letters fill no more than 60% of them, but no more than 20 squares per side. If no try at a size is complete, the next size up is tried, up to 20 squares per side. Each size gets up to 10 tries. If you choose a size, only that size is tried. When no try is complete, the result is one of the tries at the last size tried (your size, or 20 squares per side when the size is left blank): the one that placed the most words, and among those, the one with the fewest extra places a word can be found. Making the grid stops after this fixed number of tries, never because of time, so a slower device gives the same grid.
The filler letters are random and aren't checked for words they might spell, including unwanted ones. YepWord keeps no list of blocked words.
Sources for the puzzle and the directions:
Each word's letters are put in a random order. In a phrase, each word is mixed up on its own, and spaces and hyphens stay where they are. Apostrophes are left out, a one-letter word stays as it is, and the letters are shown in capitals. A phrase counts as mixed up when the whole phrase differs from the original, even if one of its words is unchanged.
A puzzle is drawn again until it differs from the word itself and from every other word in your list. Some words can't get such a puzzle: a word or phrase in which each word uses only one letter, such as aaa, or one whose every other order is already another word in your list. Those words get no puzzle, and the page says why.
Sources for anagrams and unscrambling:
What the checks count
After a game is made, a separate count reads the finished cards, grid, or puzzles again. It doesn't use anything from the code that made them. It starts again from the text of your word list, reads it with its own code, and works out each expected value from your entries alone. Each check shows the count, the expected value, and Match only when the two are equal. Counts are shown as numbers, even when they're 0.
- The number of cards, numbered from 1 with none missing, and the number of words on each card, with the free space in the center only when you asked for one.
- Squares with a word that isn't in your list. Expected: 0.
- Cards with the same word twice. Expected: 0.
- Repeated sets of words (D_S): the number of cards minus the number of different sets of words, ignoring the order and the free space. Three cards with the same set add 2. With n words, k squares, and N cards, the expected value is N − C(n, k) when that's above 0, and 0 otherwise. No N cards can have fewer.
- Repeated layouts (D_P): the number of cards minus the number of different layouts, where two cards have the same layout when every square has the same word. Expected: 0. D_P is never more than D_S.
- The caller's list: numbered from 1 with none missing, in the order of your list, with every word on every card found on it.
For repeated sets and layouts, the result also lists the numbers of the cards that share one.
- The grid: the number of rows and columns, and a letter from A to Z in every square.
- Words that can't be used, and words without an answer, compared with what the page reported.
- Answers for words that aren't in your list, and words with more than one answer. Expected: 0.
- Each answer: read from its first square in its direction, it must spell its word without leaving the grid. Expected mismatches: 0.
- Answers that share more than one square, or share a square along the same line. Expected: 0.
- How many times each word can be found. The count looks for every word from every square in all 8 directions, because the person solving it doesn't know which directions are used. The same squares read backward count once. A placed word is expected to be found once, at its answer, and a word without an answer 0 times. A word inside a longer word, such as cat in cats, is found more than once when both are placed, and the result names the longer word.
Only words from your list are looked for. Other words that the filler letters may spell aren't checked.
- Each answer is a word from your list, with one puzzle per word.
- Each puzzle has the same letters as its answer, the same number of times, with spaces and hyphens in the same places. Expected mismatches: 0.
- Puzzles that are the same as their answer or as another word in your list. Expected: 0.
- Possible answers: for each puzzle, the words in your list with the same letters in each word of the phrase, in the same order of words. Expected: 1. The count looks only in your list. YepWord has no dictionary, so a puzzle may also spell an English word that isn't on your list.
- Words without a puzzle are counted again to confirm that no allowed puzzle exists for them.
When something can't be done
Some requests can't be met, such as more cards with different sets of words than your list allows. The page doesn't count that as success. It doesn't drop words or make fewer cards without saying so. It shows which condition isn't met and why at the top of the result, and still makes whatever can be made.
Any other mismatch in the checks means the page made a mistake. The result then says how many checks don't match and not to use the set, and the print buttons don't appear.
- Not enough words for a card: fewer different words than squares on a card. No cards are made.
- Not enough different sets of words for the number of cards: C(n, k) is less than the number of cards. The cards are made, and the result says how many share a set, and which ones.
- Words that can't be used: words with characters other than A to Z after spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes are left out, or with fewer than 3 letters. They're left out of the grid.
- Words too long for the grid: a word with more letters than the grid has squares per side can't fit in any direction.
- Words that weren't placed: the tries didn't find a place for them. That doesn't mean no place exists.
- Words found more than once: a word inside a longer word, or an extra place the tries couldn't avoid. The result shows where.
- No words to place: no grid is made.
A grid too wide for the paper at the chosen text size isn't one of these. The page still makes and checks the grid, notes that it won't fit across the page, and doesn't show the print buttons (see Page counts and printing).
- Words that can't be used: words with characters other than A to Z after spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes are left out.
- Words that can't be mixed up: a word or phrase in which each word uses only one letter, such as aaa, or one whose every other order is already another word in your list.
- Puzzles with more than one possible answer in your list, such as listen and silent. The result names the other words.
- No word can get a puzzle: no puzzles are made.
How your word list is read
Each line is one word or phrase. Blank lines are skipped, spaces at the start and end of a line are removed, and runs of spaces become one space. Accented letters typed in different ways are treated the same. Capital letters don't matter, so Lantern and lantern are the same word, and the first line's spelling is used. The result shows how many lines you entered and how many different words they make.
Word bingo shows each word as you typed it. The word search and word scramble use only the letters: spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes (straight or curly) are left out, and the letters must be A to Z. Accented letters aren't changed to plain ones, so a word with é is pointed out and not used in those two games.
The page doesn't change your list. It points these out with line numbers and leaves the list as you typed it:
- Repeated words: lines with the same word. The game uses each word once.
- Words with the same letters that differ only in spaces, hyphens, or apostrophes, such as ice cream and ice-cream. Word bingo treats them as different words. The word search places only the first one. The word scramble gives each its own puzzle.
- Words that can't be used in the word search or word scramble, and why.
- Word search: words inside another word, forward or backward, such as cat in cats.
- Word scramble: words made of the same letters, such as listen and silent, and words that can't be mixed up.
Limits
| Game | Lines of words | Other limits |
|---|---|---|
| Word bingo | Up to 100 | 1 to 100 cards |
| Word search | Up to 40 | 3 to 20 squares per side |
| Word scramble | Up to 100 | None |
Blank lines don't count toward the limit. Entries outside these ranges aren't accepted, and a link with them doesn't open a set. The page doesn't shorten your list or change a number to fit.
The limits keep each game quick to make in a browser. The site's tests check that the largest entries are made and checked within 3 seconds in each game. Making a set never stops because of time. The word search stops after a fixed number of tries, and the word bingo and word scramble draw again until the rules are met, so the same link gives the same set on any device.
Links and versions
The link records the game's version, your settings, your word list as you typed it, and a seed from 0 to 4,294,967,295, so the same link opens the same set. A link without a seed gets a random one, which is then written into the link. The paper size and text size change only how the set is printed, not the cards or puzzles. Your words stay in the link and aren't saved on a server, so anyone you send the link to can see them.
When you move to another game from a result, the link takes your words, paper size, and text size with it. The other game starts with its own default settings and a new seed.
| Game | Current version |
|---|---|
| Word bingo | Version 1 |
| Word search | Version 1 |
| Word scramble | Version 1 |
The same link (the game's page, its version, seed, word list, and settings) opens the same set, and the set changes only when the game's version goes up. When the rules for a game change, its version number goes up, and the same seed can then give a different set.
A link made with an older version opens with the current version: the page makes the set again from the link's settings, words, and seed, and says at the top of the result that the set may differ from the one the link was made for. If you'll use it with sheets already printed from that link, check them against the new set first. The page doesn't keep the rules of older versions. A link whose version this page doesn't have, or whose version isn't a whole number, also opens with the current version and the same kind of note. A link you copy from the page always names the current version.
Page counts and printing
Each game prints with your browser's print, on Letter and A4 paper in portrait, with 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) margins. Only the sheets print, not the form or this text. The players' sheets and the host's sheets (the caller's list or the answer key) print separately, and the page shows how many pages each should take before you print.
The page counts assume your browser prints at 100% scale, with the margins set by the page (often called Default in the print dialog), on the paper size you chose. Each page is laid out at a fixed size, with a fixed number of lines, so long words don't add pages. In a list, a long word or phrase is printed smaller so it fits on one line, down to 8-point text. One that's still too long at that size, or one with many wide letters such as M and W, wraps onto a second line and can overlap the lines around it. Browsers may break pages differently, so print one page first to check.
The cards take the number of cards divided by the cards per page, rounded up. The caller's list takes the number of words divided by the lines per page, rounded up. Cards are the same size on every board. The words in a square shrink to fit the longest word on the card, and a word too long even then wraps.
| Text size | Cards per page | Caller's list lines per page |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 4 | 50 |
| Large | 2 | 36 |
| Extra large | 1 | 20 |
The word search and the answer key each take one page when the grid and its list fit together, with the word list in 3 columns on the word search and the answer list in 2 columns on the answer key. Otherwise the list moves to a second page.
The answer list gives the square where each word starts, counted from the top left, and an arrow for the way it reads, as in row 9 col 2 ↗. When a word can be found more than once, the line adds where else it appears: inside another word, or at another square.
The grid has to fit across the page. When it's wider than the largest size below, the page says so, doesn't show the print buttons, and suggests a smaller text size. The grid size isn't reduced to fit the paper.
| Text size | Largest grid size that fits across |
|---|---|
| Standard | 20 |
| Large | Letter 17, A4 16 |
| Extra large | 14 |
The puzzles take the number of puzzles divided by the lines per page, rounded up. The answer key adds a line for each word that got no puzzle, so it takes the number of puzzles plus those words, divided by the lines per page, rounded up.
| Text size | Lines per page |
|---|---|
| Standard | 20 |
| Large | 15 |
| Extra large | 10 |
Disclaimer
We count every set again with a separate check, but look at the counts yourself before you hand anything out. We don't promise that no two cards repeat or that every puzzle can be solved. The checks show what they counted. Printed pages depend on your browser, printer, and print settings, so print one page first to check the size and the page breaks.
The word list is yours. YepWord doesn't provide dictionaries, word lists, or themed templates, and it doesn't check words outside your list, including words that the random filler letters of a word search may spell. Your words stay in your browser and in the link. We don't save them or send them to our analytics.