Word Jumble

Scrambled words on the left, letter boxes on the right; the circled boxes donate their letters to a final answer to unscramble.

What it is

The newspaper scramble format popularised by Jumble (Martin Naydel, 1954, syndicated ever since): solve each anagram, then unscramble the circled letters for the payoff answer.

The implementation’s guarantees

• Every puzzle word is anagram-unique within the vocabulary — the classic failure (printing a scramble whose solution could be TEAM or MATE) is checked, and words with anagram mates in a custom list are excluded rather than trusted.
• Every scramble differs from its solution — a “scramble” that is not scrambled is refused.
• The circled letters are exactly the answer’s letters (as a multiset — the blanks unscramble anyway, so donation order is free; the first version demanded answer-order donation and starved itself of valid layouts).
• Answers are retried until one distributes over the page’s words: QUILT is a fine word and an impossible answer on the built-in list, because no other word can donate a Q.
• Rating basis: longest_word. The answer key fills every box.