How it works
Need a letter nobody chose? This wheel of letters spins A to Z on 26 equal segments, a one-in-26 chance each. Choose Vowels, Consonants or No Q, X or Z to spin only those. Under each result you get the letter's place in the alphabet, a starter word, and the word radio operators use to spell it aloud.
Read the full guide
Word games: a letter nobody chose
Category games, where everyone names a town, a food and an animal that start with one letter, need a letter no player picked. Choose No Q, X or Z first: those are the three rarest letters in English, and a round where nobody can think of a food beginning with X falls flat. In Elimination no letter returns until the rest have had a turn.
Letter names, sounds and vowels
For a pre-reader, this is an ABC spinner: spin a capital, ask its name, then find its lower-case partner on an alphabet strip. For phonics, ask for the sound instead: M says mmm, as in moon. The Vowels filter leaves A, E, I, O and U for short-vowel practice, where children build a word such as c-a-t around the spin. Y sits with the consonants here although it does a vowel's job in sky and happy.
- Print puts your spins on paper, numbered, newest first. After 26 spins in Elimination that sheet is a shuffled alphabet, ready for a scavenger hunt or a spelling-test order.
- Spelling a name over the phone needs no spin: the list further down gives every letter's radio word, Alfa to Zulu.
- For a made-up character's initials, spin twice in Normal, since real initials can repeat.
Questions and answers
Does a common letter like S come up more often?
No. Each of the 26 letters has the same chance on each spin, however common it is in real words, and the same letter twice running is ordinary luck. To go through the alphabet with no repeats, switch to Elimination. Put them back refills the wheel for the next class.
Why are the radio words spelt Alfa and Juliett?
Those are the official spellings. The spelling alphabet was settled for international aviation in 1956, for speakers of many languages. Alfa has an f because ph is not read as f everywhere, and Juliett ends in a double t because French speakers would leave a single final t silent.
Can I add letters such as Ñ, or spin sounds like sh?
Yes. Open My list and add Ñ, Å or Ö. A phonics group can type digraphs such as sh, ch and th instead. Your own list spins the entries alone, without the starter word and radio word.