The word lists in this section have been specifically created for use by word game enthusiasts and are actively developed by the maintainers indicated. They are recommended for use with word puzzle software:

UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary
ENABLE (Scrabble® Lexicon)
Literature Lists
OPTED

For a wider range of word lists, try the list of sites at the end. To suggest additions to this list, use the Feedback Form.

UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary

The UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary (UKACD) is a word list compiled for the crossword community. In particular, it's intended for setters and solvers of advanced cryptic crosswords in the UK; for example, the Listener Crossword and the barred puzzles in the Sunday broadsheets.

The UKACD is in the ISO 8859-1 character set (compatible with the Windows ANSI character set), with a single entry per line. It is a "freeware" package that is no longer maintained by the author in that form: it has been superseded by the Edited English word list provided as part of TEA Crossword Helper and Sympathy.

Download the UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary (2.56 Mb)

ENABLE

The Enhanced North American Benchmark LEexicon (ENABLE) is a public domain list of 173,000+ words, mainly intended for use by Scrabble® players. It's maintained by thegrendel@theriver.com.

The Enhanced North American Benchmark LEexicon is the most thoroughly researched, and therefore the most authoritative word list and reference available for Scrabble® players. ENABLE isn't limited to words under an arbitrary length, so it is also eminently suitable for other word games such as Anagrams and Clabbers, and crossword puzzle solving.

The ENABLE list is available as a supplementary TEA&Sympathy Dictionary for TEA Crossword Helper (this list can only be used with Crossword Man's software and is not provided in text form). It should be suitable for both North American and International play as it is a "SOWPODS" list, with the words not acceptable under North American rules indicated by a #:

Download the TEA ENABLE List for Scrabble® Players (1.4 Mb)

ENABLE in text format can be found at The Eclectic Pastiche, together with other Scrabble-related information and software.

Literature Lists

The TEA Literature Lists package includes the following word lists:

Shakespeare - the distinct words found in the Project Gutenberg edition of the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare
King James Bible - the distinct words found in the Project Gutenberg edition of the King James Bible (old and new testaments)

These are available as supplementary TEA&Sympathy Dictionaries for TEA Crossword Helper and Sympathy Crossword Construction (these lists can only be used with Crossword Man's software and are not provided in text form):

Download the TEA Literature Lists (0.5 Mb)

Online Plain Text English Dictionary

A word list with definitions based on the Project Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged dictionary, maintained by Ralph Sutherland.

See the OPTED web pages for further information.

Other Word List Sites

The above selection focuses on word lists that are actively maintained. For a wider range of word lists, try the following pages:

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