What is a random word generator?
A random word generator picks words by chance from a fixed list, so you get words you would not have thought of yourself. This one draws from 7,776 everyday English words, the EFF long word list, and gives each word exactly the same chance of being picked. People use it for party games, drawing and writing prompts, classroom warm-ups, naming things and memorable passwords.
Ideas for random words
- Games: Pictionary, charades, Taboo-style guessing and word association.
- Creative prompts: pick three words and write a story, draw a scene or name a band.
- Teaching: spelling practice, vocabulary warm-ups and sentence-building exercises.
- Naming: project code names, Wi-Fi network names or team names.
- Passphrases: memorable passwords made of several random words.
How many words are there of each length?
Longer words are far more common in the list than short ones. The counter under the buttons shows how many words match your settings; these are the totals for each length:
| Letters | Words | Examples of use |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 82 | Very young readers, quick spelling |
| 4 | 467 | Easy Pictionary and charades |
| 5 | 928 | Word games, warm-ups |
| 6 | 1,372 | Writing prompts |
| 7 | 1,591 | Harder guessing games |
| 8 | 1,779 | Vocabulary practice |
| 9 | 1,557 | Spelling challenges |
| All | 7,776 | Passphrases |
First letters are uneven too: S starts 1,087 words and C 751, while Q starts 37, Y 27, Z 22 and X only 2. If a letter and length together match few words, the list comes out shorter than the number you chose, because words never repeat.
Random words for games
- Pictionary: set How many to 1 and the length to 4–6 letters for words that are easy to draw. Press New words for each turn, and hide the screen from the guessers.
- Charades: the same settings work; skip any word that is hard to act and press again.
- Taboo-style guessing: get one word for the team to guess and agree on three “banned” words before the timer starts.
- Story chain: generate 5 words; each player adds a sentence that uses the next word.
Capitalize turns on a capital first letter, which reads better on a projector or a shared screen.
Random words for passphrases
The EFF list was built for passphrases. 7,776 is 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 × 6, so each word can stand for five dice rolls, and each randomly chosen word adds about 12.9 bits of strength. Five words give about 65 bits and six words about 78 bits, enough that guessing them is not practical. Words must be chosen at random, which is what this tool does; a phrase you make up yourself is much weaker.
For a ready-made passphrase with separators, a number and a strength rating, use the password generator. The list is published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under CC BY 3.0.
How the words are picked
The list downloads to your browser once. Each word is then chosen with crypto.getRandomValues, the browser’s secure random generator, using a method that gives no word a higher chance than another. Nothing you generate is sent to our server or stored, and the same settings give a fresh list each time you press New words.