Searching for Words

Choose File->Search from the main menu to create a new Search tab. A Search tab can be used to find all valid words that match certain conditions within a lexicon. The lexicon and conditions are specified in the top part of the Search tab, and the resulting list of words is displayed in the bottom area. Initially only a single search condition is displayed. Add more conditions by clicking any button containing a plus sign. Remove a condition from the list by clicking the button with a minus sign next to the condition to be removed. When the search conditions are correct, click the Search button to perform a search.

Search Conditions

The available search conditions are described below. Any number of each type of condition can be specified in a single search.

Anagram Match

The Anagram Match condition means that the letters in the search pattern can be matched in any order. All the letters must be matched exactly the number of times they appear in the match pattern. Special wildcard characters can be used to match any letters: the ? or . character means "match any single letter" and the * or @ character means "match any number of letters". The * character also matches nothingness. Multiple wildcard characters can be used in a single pattern. The [ and ] characters can also be used to specify a set of letters that can be matched. Here are some examples of Anagram Match conditions, using the NWL2020 lexicon:

Search PatternMatches
ATEATE, EAT, ETA, TAE, TEA
AENORSTATONERS, SANTERO, SENATOR, TREASON
ETX?EXIT, NEXT, SEXT, TEXT, VEXT
PI??ZCAPIZ, PHIZZ, PIEZO, PIZZA, PRIZE, SPITZ, UNZIP, ZIPPO, ZIPPY
Z[AEIOU][AEIOU]AZO, ZEE, ZOA, ZOO
*BJMXJAMBEAUX

Note that with an Anagram Match condition, using more than one * character has the same effect as using just one.

Pattern Match

The Pattern Match condition means that the search pattern must be matched exactly, in the same order the letters are specified. The same special wildcard characters can be used as described in the Anagram Match section. Here are some examples of Pattern Match conditions, using the NWL2020 lexicon:

Search PatternMatches
ATEATE
AT?ATE, ATT
AT??ATAP, ATES, ATMA, ATOM, ATOP
T?PTAP, TIP, TOP, TUP
A[JQXZ]?AJI, AXE, AZO
[AEIOU]D[AEIOU]ADO, ODA, ODE, UDO
TO*PTOP, TOECAP, TOSSUP, TOECLIP, TOUCHUP, TOYSHOP, TOWNSHIP
*WMCWM, SHAWM
?W*M?SSWAMIS, SWAMPS, TWASOMES, TWOSOMES, TWELVEMOS

Subanagram Match

The Subanagram Match condition means that the letters in the search pattern can be matched in any order, and not all letters must be used in each matching word. The same special wildcard characters can be used as described in the Anagram Match section. Here are some examples of Subanagram Match conditions, using the NWL2020 lexicon:

Search PatternMatches
ATEAE, AT, ET, TA, TE, ATE, EAT, ETA, TAE, TEA
LX?AL, AX, EL, EX, LA, LI, LO, OX, XI, XU, LAX, LEX, LOX, LUX
LX[AU]AL, AX, LA, XU, LAX, LUX

Note that with a Subanagram Match condition, using a * character will cause the pattern to match every valid word.

Length

A minimum and maximum word length can be specified for the results of a search. For example, if the minimum length is 4 and the maximum length is 6, then the search will only return results that are between four and six letters long. To specify minimum or maximum length, choose the Length condition and set the Min and Max values appropriately. An exact length can also be specified by making the Min and Max values equal to each other.

In Lexicon

The In Lexicon condition specifies an additional lexicon that each word must belong to. Only words in the specified lexicon will appear in the search results. If the Not checkbox is activated, only words not in the additional lexicon will appear in the search results.

The In Lexicon condition is a convenient way to find differences between two lexicons. For example, to find all the 3-letter words that are in the NWL2020 lexicon, but do not appear in the NSWL2020 lexicon, do a search within the NWL2020 lexicon with a Length condition of Min 3, Max 3, and a negated In Lexicon condition of NSWL2020. In order for this search to work correctly, both the NWL2020 and NSWL2020 lexicons must be loaded.

In Word List

The In Word List condition specifies a list that each word must belong to. Only words in the word list will appear in the search results. If the Not checkbox is activated, only words not in the word list will appear in the search results.

To create a word list, click the Edit List button. A window will appear, allowing a word list to be read from a file. To read a word list from a file, click the Open File button and select the file containing the word list. A word list file is expected to have one word per line. Words from more files can be included by clicking the Open File button multiple times. The word list can be cleared by clicking the Clear button.

When the word list is complete, click the OK button. The search area will display the number of words in the list.

Belongs to Group

The Belongs to Group condition specifies special sets that each word must belong to. Currently there are a few sets provided:

Hook words. The Hook Words set consists of all words that can form another valid word by removing the first or last letter. For example, SHILL is a hook word, because the word HILL can be formed by removing its first letter.

Front hooks. The Front Hooks set consists of all words that can form another valid word by removing the first letter. For example, AGAZE is a front hook, because the word GAZE can be formed by removing its first letter.

Back hooks. The Back Hooks set consists of all words that can form another valid word by removing the last letter. For example, VIGA is a back hook, because the word VIG can be formed by removing its last letter.

High Fives. The High Fives set consists of 5-letter words beginning or ending with F, H, K, V, W, or Y. High Fives also do not contain J, Q, X, or Z.

Type I Sevens. The Type I Sevens set consists of 7-letter words containing a 6-letter bingo stem in the top 100 stems. For example, AIRIEST is a Type I Seven because it contains the bingo stem SATIRE, which is in the top 100 stems.

Type II Sevens. The Type II Sevens set consists of 7-letter words consisting entirely of the letters in AAADEEEEGIIILNNOORRSSTTU, but not belonging to the Type I Sevens set. This distribution of letters represents each letter that appears at least three times in the total letter distribution of some popular word games, plus an extra S because the S can be such a valuable letter. For example, ADAGIAL is a Type II Seven because its letters are entirely within the set of letters described above, but it is not a Type I Seven.

Type III Sevens. The Type III Sevens set consists of 7-letter words that have at least a certain probability, but do not belong to either the Type I Sevens or Type II Sevens set. For a word to be a Type III Seven, its probability must be greater than or equal to the probability of the word HUNTERS. For example, ABALONE is a Type III Seven, because its probability is greater than HUNTERS, but it is not a Type I Seven nor a Type II Seven.

Type I Eights. The Type I Eights set consists of 8-letter words containing a 6-letter bingo stem in the top 100 stems. For example, SEXTARII is a Type I Eight because it contains the bingo stem SATIRE, which is in the top 100 stems.

Type II Eights. The Type II Eights set consists of 8-letter words consisting entirely of the letters in AAADEEEEGIIILNNOORRSSTTU, but not belonging to the Type I Eights set. This distribution of letters represents each letter that appears at least three times in the total letter distribution of some popular word games, plus an extra S because the S can be such a valuable letter. For example, ADENOSES is a Type II Eight because its letters are entirely within the set of letters described above, but it is not a Type I Eight.

Type III Eights. The Type III Eights set consists of 7-letter words that have at least a certain probability, but do not belong to either the Type I Eights or Type II Eights set. For a word to be a Type III Eight, its probability must be greater than or equal to the probability of the word NOTIFIED. For example, ABOIDEAU is a Type III Eight, because its probability is greater than NOTIFIED, but it is not a Type I Eight nor a Type II Eight.

Eights From Seven-Letter Stems. The Eights From Seven-Letter Stems set consists of 8-letter words containing a 7-letter bingo stem in the top 100 stems. For example, AZOTISED is an Eight From Seven-Letter Stems because it contains the bingo stem TOADIES, which is in the top 100 stems.

Number of Vowels

A minimum and maximum number of vowels (A, E, I, O, U) can be specified for the results of a search. For example, if the minimum number of is 1 and the maximum is 2, then the search will only return words that have one or two vowels.

To specify minimum or maximum number of vowels, choose the Number of Vowels condition and set the Min and Max values appropriately. An exact number of vowels can also be specified by making the Min and Max values equal to each other.

Includes Letters

The Includes Letters condition specifies letters that must be included in each word in the search results. This is most useful if you want to specify a Pattern Match condition with wildcard characters, and want the wildcards to match certain letters in an unspecified order.

For example, to find all 7- and 8-letter words beginning with OVER and containing the letters A, L, and T in any order, do the following. Specify a Pattern Match condition of OVER*, a Length condition of Min 7, Max 8, and an Includes Letters condition of ALT. In NWL2020, there are three such words: OVERLATE, OVERSALT, and OVERTALK.

If a letter appears multiple times in a Includes Letters condition, the letter must appear at least that many times in each word in the search results.

If the Not checkbox is activated, then the Includes Letters condition specifies letters of which none must be included in each word in the search results. This is most useful for generating special word lists, such as the list of words containing the letter Q but not the letter U. To find such words, specify a Includes Letters condition of Q and a negated Includes Letters condition of U. This search will find all the words containing Q but not U.

Note that a negated Includes Letters condition specifying two or more letters is not the logical opposite of the same condition without the Not checkbox activated.

Probability Order

A Probability Order search condition can be used to find words having a certain probability order relative to other words of the same length. For example, to find the 1000 most probable 7-letter words, create a search with a Length condition of Min 7, Max 7, and a Probability Order condition of Min 1, Max 1000. To find all 8-letter words containing Z that are also among the 1000 most probable 8-letter words, create a search with a Length condition of Min 8, Max 8, an Includes Letters condition of Z, and a Probability Order condition of Min 1, Max 1000. In NWL2020, there are three such words: ANODIZER, NOTARIZE, and TRIAZOLE.

The Blanks selection area specifies the number of blanks used to calculate the probability value. The available options are 0, 1, or 2.

If the Lax checkbox is activated, the search will also find all words that have equal probability as the minimum or maximum of the range. For example, in NWL2020, a search for Length: Min 7, Max 7, Probability Order: Min 7, Max 8 (Lax) will find 10 words, whose probability orders are 1 through 10. This is because all the 7-letter words with probability order 1-7 have the same probability, as do all the words with probability order 8-10. The Lax checkbox allows them all to be found although their unique probability orders are not strictly between 7 and 8.

Limit by Probability Order

A Limit by Probability Order search condition can be used to limit the search results to a certain range of words in order of probability. For example, to find the 50 most probable 7-letter words containing V, create a search with a Length condition of Min 7, Max 7, an Includes Letters condition of V, and a Limit by Probability Order condition of Min 1, Max 50.

The Limit by Probability Order condition is applied last, after all other search conditions. So for example, in the search mentioned above, Zyzzyva first finds all 7-letter words containing V. Then it finds the words ranked 1-50 out of that list.

Playability Order

Note that the Playability Order function has been restored with the NWL2020 and NSWL2020 lexicons, but remains unsupported in other current lexicons.

A Playability Order search condition can be used to find words having a certain playability order (as calculated by John O'Laughlin) relative to other words of the same length. For example, to find the 1000 most playable 7-letter words, create a search with a Length condition of Min 7, Max 7, and a Playability Order condition of Min 1, Max 1000. To find all 8-letter words containing X that are also among the 1000 most playable 8-letter words, create a search with a Length condition of Min 8, Max 8, an Includes Letters condition of X, and a Playability Order condition of Min 1, Max 1000. In NWL2020, there are five such words: ANOREXIA, RETAXING, DEXTRINE, EXORDIAL, and EXERTION.

If the Lax checkbox is activated, the search will also find all words that have equal playability as the minimum or maximum of the range. For example, in NWL2020, a search for Length: Min 7, Max 7, Playability Order: Min 1200, Max 1200 (Lax) will find two words, AIRDATE and SEROSAE. The Lax checkbox allows them both to be found although only the unique playability order of SEROSAE is strictly 1200. The word AIRDATE has the same playability value, but its unique playability order is 1199.

Limit by Playability Order

A Limit by Playability Order search condition can be used to limit the search results to a certain range of words in order of playability. For example, to find the 50 most playable 7-letter words containing V, create a search with a Length condition of Min 7, Max 7, an Includes Letters condition of V, and a Limit by Playability Order condition of Min 1, Max 50. To find the 50 most playable words of any length between 2 and 8 containing V, simply change the Length condition to Min 2, Max 8.

The Limit by Playability Order condition is applied last, after all other search conditions. So for example, in the search mentioned above, Zyzzyva first finds all 7-letter words containing V. Then it finds the words ranked 1-50 out of that list.

Number of Unique Letters

A minimum and maximum number of unique letters can be specified for the results of a search. For example, if the minimum number of is 3 and the maximum is 5, then the search will only return words that have between three and five unique letters.

To specify minimum or maximum number of unique letters, choose the Number of Unique Letters condition and set the Min and Max values appropriately. An exact number of unique letters can also be specified by making the Min and Max values equal to each other.

Point Value

A minimum and maximum point value can be specified for the results of a search. For example, if the minimum number of is 8 and the maximum is 10, then the search will only return words that have a total point value between 8 and 10. The point value of a word is determined by adding the individual point values of its letters. The value of each letter is the following:

The point value of each letter is considered even if a word must normally be formed using a blank. For example, the point value of ZYZZYVA is 43 (10 + 4 + 10 + 10 + 4 + 4 + 1), not 23 (10 + 4 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 4 + 1).

To specify minimum or maximum point value, choose the Point Value condition and set the Min and Max values appropriately. An exact point value can also be specified by making the Min and Max values equal to each other.

Prefixes and Suffixes

There are two conditions for specifying that search results must take or not take certain prefixes or suffixes.

The Takes Prefix condition specifies that every search result must also form a valid word when the specified prefix is added. For example, if a Takes Prefix condition of PRE is specified in conjunction with a Pattern Match condition of VAL*, the word VALENCE will be found because PREVALENCE is also valid. However, the word VALID will not be found because PREVALID* is not a valid word.

If the Not checkbox is activated, the meaning of the Takes Prefix condition is exactly reversed. In the previous example, the word VALID would appear in the search results because it does not take PRE as a prefix, and VALENCE would not appear, because it does take PRE as a prefix.

The Takes Suffix condition specifies that every search result must also form a valid word when the specified suffix is added. For example, if a Takes Suffix condition of S is specified in conjunction with a Pattern Match condition of *ING, the word MOLDING will be found because MOLDINGS is also valid. However, the word SICKING will not be found because SICKINGS* is not a valid word.

If the Not checkbox is activated, the meaning of the Takes Suffix condition is exactly reversed. In the previous example, the word SICKING would appear in the search results because it does not take S as a suffix, and MOLDING would not appear, because it does take S as a suffix.

Consists of

The Consists of condition specifies letters that must occur with a certain frequency. This is useful for generating special word lists, such as the list of words containing at least 70% vowels. To find such words, specify a Consists of condition, putting 70 in the Min numeric area, 100 in the Max numeric area, and AEIOU in the input box.

Number of Anagrams

A minimum and maximum number of anagrams can be specified for the results of a search. For example, if the minimum length is 2 and the maximum is 4, then the search will only return words that have between two and four anagrams. A word is considered to be an anagram of itself, so every valid word has at least one anagram.

To specify minimum or maximum number of anagrams, choose the Number of Anagrams condition and set the Min and Max values appropriately. An exact length can also be specified by making the Min and Max values equal to each other.

Part of Speech

The Part of Speech condition searches for words that have a particular part of speech associated with them. For this search to work, the lexicon database must contain definitions including parts of speech. For example, the definition "rough, cindery lava [n AAS]" specifies a word with Noun part of speech because it is listed as "n" inside square brackets.

There are ten available parts of speech that can be searched. Here is how each part of speech must be listed in the word definitions:

Part of SpeechDefinition Format
Adjectiveadj
Adverbadv
Conjunctionconj
Definite Articledefinite_article
Indefinite Articleindefinite_article
Interjectioninterj
Nounn
Prepositionprep
Pronounpron
Verbv

Definition

The Definition condition searches for words that have definitions matching the search. For this search to work, the lexicon database must contain definitions. Currently no wildcard characters are allowed. Only literal matches can be searched.

Loading and Saving Searches

It can be inconvenient to create complicated searches from scratch each time, especially if the same search is used often. For this reason, Zyzzyva allows you to save searches and load them again later. Anywhere that you can create a search (for example, in the Search tab or the New Quiz window), there is a Save Search button. After creating the desired search conditions, click the Save Search button to save them. A window will appear to allow you to save the search to a file.

Later, if you want to repeat the same search you saved, you can click the Load Search button. A window will appear to allow you to select the saved search file. After choosing the file, the saved search conditions will appear in the search specification area just as if they had been entered from scratch.

When saving a search, only the search specification is saved. The words found by the search are not saved. This allows for flexibility in searching. For example, if you save a search that finds 3-letter words, that search will correctly find all 3-letter words no matter what lexicon Zyzzyva is using.


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