Word Wombat is a fast anagram game set in the red Australian outback. Six wombats poke their heads out of their burrows, each holding a sign with one letter. Tap them in order to spell a word, press Enter, and see how many words you can dig out of six letters before the clock runs down.

How to play

Tap a wombat, or type its letter, to add the letter to your word. The wombat ducks back into its burrow until you use or clear the word.
Press Enter to check the word. Mix shuffles the wombats, and Clear (or Esc) sends the letters back.
The board above the burrows shows every word hidden in the letters as empty boxes, sorted by length from three to six letters.
Find at least one six-letter wombat word before the time runs out to go on to the next round. Miss it, and the game ends and the board shows the words you missed.

Skill levels and scoring

Choose Easy (3 minutes per round), Normal (2½ minutes) or Hard (2 minutes). A three-letter word is worth 60 points, four letters 120, five letters 200 and a wombat word 400. Find every word in a round for a clean sweep: 500 bonus points plus 10 for every second left on the clock. Real words that are not on the board still count as bonus words, for half the points.

Wombat ranks

Every finished game adds to your lifetime total, which is saved in your browser, and moves you up the ranks. Each rank gives your six wombats a new outfit: a red bandana, a miner's helmet, a hard hat, sunglasses and a scarf, a bush hat with corks and, at the very top, a crown and cape.

The wombats react while you play: they grin at a good word, look puzzled at a word you already have, sweat when the clock runs low and doze off if you leave them alone for too long.

Tips

Hunt for the six-letter word first: it decides whether you play another round.
Every long word hides shorter ones. PLANET gives PLANE, PLANT, LATE, NEAT and TEN.
Stuck? Press Mix. Letters in a new order often show a word you kept looking past.

If you used to play Word Whomp on Pogo, you will feel at home: Word Wombat is our own free game built on the same idea of making words from six letters against the clock. It is not made by or connected with Pogo or Electronic Arts.

Prefer plain letter tiles? Try Word Ruffle, or race a shorter clock in Word Quest.