Valid Theme Word Sets

This page describes the combinations of words and word lengths that currently produce theme layouts

When entering words for use in the theme editor, the words will have to match one of the following rows. Number of words indicates the total number of words entered. Number of groups is the number of different lengths of words.

Number of words	Number of groups
5	3
5	2
5	1
4	2
4	1
3	2
3	1

For example, the theme WORTHASHOT (10), ALITTLEEXTRA (12), SETTLEASCORE (12), DOUBLETAKE(10) has 4 words and 2 groups, so would have valid layouts available.

Theme from the NYT 2-10-20

Symmetry Violations

Even if you enter words that meet the criteria above it may not result in a valid theme. Consider a theme with the following 5 words (15x15 puzzle).

• AABATTERIES (11)

• AARONCARTER (11)

• ABOUTTHESAME (12)

• ABOYNAMEDSUE (12)

• AAARATED (8)

Sparkling Fill will recognize that 5 words of 3 different lengths is valid, but it will guess that the 8 letter word must be in the middle row because it has no same-length counterpart. This would be fine in a puzzle of even width, but in a 15x15, an 8 letter word can't be in the middle row. No possible layouts will be found.