Fallen Phrase Puzzle Generator
In a fallen-phrase puzzle a phrase is written into a grid, one character to a square, and then every letter drops out of the bottom of its column. What is left is a grid of white and black squares and, above each column, the letters that belong in it. The solver puts the letters back, each in a white square of its own column, until the rows read as the phrase. This makes the puzzle from one of thirty short sentences written for this site, or from your own text, and prints the puzzle and the answer on separate pages.
What this generator does
Writes the phrase into a grid of the width you choose, one character a square, with a black square for each space. Punctuation stays printed in its square. Every letter is then taken out of its square and listed above its column, in alphabetical order. The puzzle is checked from what is printed: each column's letters must fill exactly that column's white squares, and the answer read row by row must be the phrase.
How to use this tool
- Choose a built-in sentence (a seed repeats the choice) or type your own text.
- Choose the grid width, whether words may break across rows, and whether to give the first letter of every word.
- Press Make the puzzle, then print the puzzle and the answer, which come out on separate pages.
Understanding the controls
- Phrase
- A built-in sentence, written for this site, or your own text of 10 or more letters and up to 140 characters. Your text stays in your browser.
- Grid width
- 8 to 20 squares. Narrow grids make tall columns with many letters to place; wide grids make short ones.
- Line breaks
- Anywhere lets the phrase run on from one row to the next, breaking words; whole words keeps every word on one row, which is easier.
- Give the first letter of every word
- Prints each word's first letter in its square and takes it out of the column above, which shows where every word starts.
- Seed
- For built-in sentences: the same seed and settings make the same puzzle while the generator is unchanged. Not a secret.
Worked examples
- THE CAT SAT. at width 4
- Rows THE■ / CAT■ / SAT. with letters C S T, A A H and E T T above the first three columns. Ignoring language they go back 6 × 3 × 3 = 54 ways; only one spells the phrase.
- Solving tip
- Start with short columns and with one- and two-letter words: a single white square between two black ones is usually A or I.
Common use cases
- A word puzzle for a newsletter, a class or a quiz night, from your own message
- Spelling and word-shape practice, with first letters given for younger solvers
- A one-page puzzle to send with a card or an invitation
How this generator works
Text is turned into capitals. Curly apostrophes become straight, double quotation marks are left out, and runs of spaces become one; anything else outside A to Z, spaces and . , ' ! ? ; : - is refused rather than changed, so the answer is always exactly the text. Repeated letters are listed as many times as they occur. Letters above a column are sorted alphabetically, so their order gives nothing away. The page counts how many ways the letters could go back ignoring language, which is a multinomial for each column; the phrase is always one of those ways. It does not check whether another arrangement also reads as English.
Randomness and fairness
Only the choice of built-in sentence is random: from the browser's secure generator, or a seeded one when you type a code. Codes are deterministic, not cryptographic, and not a secret. Your own text is used exactly as typed.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Assumptions this tool makes
- Solvers read left to right, row by row, with a black square between words.
Limitations and good to know
- English letters A to Z only: accents, digits and other symbols are refused, not converted.
- The answer is guaranteed to fit; that it is the only sensible English answer is not checked.
- Built-in sentences are a fixed set of thirty, so repeats come quickly for a regular puzzle.
Common mistakes
- Moving a letter to another column
- Every letter stays in its own column; only its row is unknown.
- Reading the letters above a column as a word
- They are in alphabetical order, not their order in the grid.
Privacy and your data
Your text stays in your browser. With analytics consent, a count records how many letters a puzzle had; the text and any code are not sent.
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