WordMatch searches for all words within a database that contain a chain of one or more letters. WordMatch serves as both an umpire and teacher to reveal what valid words contain any given letter chain. Players of LetterJAM! during a JAM! session want to know if the challenged player is bluffing with no word in mind, or is announcing at least one valid word containing his or her newly created chain. At the end of a JAM! session, players can satisfy their curiosity of what other words could have been formed or continued building during a session. Teachers use WordMatch to identify and present to language learners various words and spellings for didactic use. WordMatch does not provide definitions of words so as to allow players, teachers, students and learners to rely upon their own preferred dictionary sources, whether online or printed.
To find valid words containing a chosen word chain, type in the Search bar the "wild card" symbol (*) on both sides of the chain. WordMatch will locate and present all valid words that have zero or any number of letters in the front or back. For example, to find all words with the word chain "at", enter For valid words that contain exactly one missing letter, use a single underscore (_). For example, to match words that begin with a single letter followed by "at" only, enter Note that WordMatch can process queries with any number of different or similar (*) or (_) wild card symbols.
The source of WordMatch is an open-source word database called Enable2K, North American word list, used in well-known word games. This millennial version that followed the 1997 version contains over 170,000 words which are mostly US spellings, with some words from other forms of English (such as British). This is the most authoritative word list for word game players worldwide. ENABLE is an acronym for Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon, and attempts to combine several other sources, such as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, and the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. The list does not contain any hyphenated words, abbreviations, acronyms, or proper nouns (capitalized words), and certain vulgarities have been omitted. It also does not contain single-letter words such as "I". WordMatch is used for informational and educational purposes and is being used as the final arbiter and umpire for official LetterJAM! tournaments.
