Letter Boxed arranges twelve letters along the four sides of a square, three letters per side. You build words by connecting letters with straight lines, but two consecutive letters in a word can never come from the same side. Each new word must start with the last letter of the one before it, and the goal is to use every one of the twelve letters, usually within a target number of words.
The core rule that makes it tricky
Because consecutive letters can't share a side, you're constantly forced to jump across the square rather than picking whatever word comes to mind first. A long, obvious word often turns out to be unusable simply because two of its letters happen to sit on the same edge.
How word chaining works
After your first word, every word after it has to start with the previous word's final letter. That's what turns Letter Boxed into a genuine puzzle rather than just a word search: you're not just finding valid words, you're finding a sequence of them that link together and eventually touch all twelve letters.
A general approach that tends to work
Start by identifying your least common letters and figure out early which words could use them, since those tend to be the limiting factor for the whole puzzle. Favor longer words when you can find them, since each word you use is a step in your count toward the target, and fewer, longer words usually beats many short ones.
Why we don't have a dedicated Letter Boxed solver yet
Letter Boxed's side-adjacency and word-chaining rules are a genuinely different search problem from anything our current tools handle. It's on our list of tools worth building properly rather than rushing, so if it's something you'd like to see, let us know.
Frequently asked questions
How many letters are in a Letter Boxed puzzle?
Twelve, arranged three per side around a square.
What's the rule about sides in Letter Boxed?
Two letters next to each other in a word can never come from the same side of the square. That single rule is what makes the puzzle genuinely challenging rather than a simple word search.
How does word chaining work in Letter Boxed?
Every word after your first has to begin with the last letter of the previous word, linking your words into one continuous chain that works through all twelve letters.
What's the goal of a Letter Boxed puzzle?
To use every one of the twelve letters at least once, ideally within a target number of words that the puzzle suggests.
Is there a trick to picking a good first word?
Identifying your rarest letters early and figuring out which words could use them tends to save time, since those letters are usually what limits your options most.
Do you have a Letter Boxed solver?
Not yet. Its side-adjacency and word-chaining rules are a different kind of search problem than our current tools handle, but it's something we're considering building properly rather than rushing out.
Is Letter Boxed affiliated with this site?
No. Letter Boxed is a puzzle from The New York Times Company, and this is independent, unaffiliated commentary.
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