Random letter wheel: pick a letter for word games

How it is calculated

The wheel holds 23 letters: A to Z without Q, X and Y. Each letter therefore has a 1 in 23 chance, about 4.35%. Want the full alphabet? Just add the missing letters as new lines.

How it works

1. Press "Spin the wheel" – the result is shown as soon as the wheel stops.
2. To avoid repeats, switch on "Remove the winning entry from the wheel". "Drawn so far" shows which letters have already come up.
3. After the game, "Put drawn entries back" returns all letters to the wheel.

The wheel has no built-in timer – for timed rounds a phone stopwatch does the job.

Random letter from A to Z – or just A to G

For the full alphabet, add Q, X and Y as new lines: with 26 letters each has a 1 in 26 chance, about 3.85%. You can also trim the wheel to a range such as A–G or A–D for phonics practice, or add the digits 0–9 to draw letters and numbers together.

How to play Scattergories-style games

• Everyone writes down the same list of categories, for example a city, a country, an animal, a food.
• The wheel picks a letter. Each player finds one word per category starting with that letter.
• Play against a timer (60–90 seconds works well) or until the first player calls "stop".
• Score one point per valid answer that nobody else wrote. Duplicate answers cancel each other out.

The same idea shows up worldwide under different names and scoring rules, from classroom category games to family road-trip favourites.

Why leave out Q, X and Y?

Few words in most categories start with these letters – "a river beginning with X" leaves nearly every sheet empty and kills the round. That's why many groups skip them. If you want a challenge, add them back as a rare wildcard.

Variations

• No repeats: turn on "Remove the winning entry from the wheel" and every letter comes up only once per game.
• Favour easy letters: type S *2 or B *2 so productive letters come up more often.
• For kids: use three categories and remove tricky letters such as J, U or V.
• Other games: use the letter for word chains, "I spy", tongue twisters or picking a name for a character.

Category ideas

City, country, animal, job, first name, food, plant, brand, film or TV show, sport, something in the kitchen, band or musician, celebrity, colour, body part, something you pack for a holiday.

Need a number instead of a letter? Use the random number generator.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and legal basis

• W3C Recommendation: W3C Web Cryptography API – getRandomValues()
• MDN Web Docs – Crypto.getRandomValues()

As of: 26 September 2026 · Editorial policy