Random Letter Generator: Spin for a Letter From A to Z

1. 1Choose the letters on the wheel: A to Z, Vowels or Consonants.
2. 2Choose the case: ABC, abc, or ABC + abc.
3. 3Press Spin, or use Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). The wheel turns and the letter appears on a card.
4. 4Spin again for the next letter. The Results tab lists your recent letters.

On a phone the letter set and the case sit under the Spin button instead of beside the wheel.

This wheel of letters has three sets.

Changing the set or the case rebuilds the list in the Entries tab. Pressing the same choice again restores the letters after you have edited the list by hand.

To leave out single letters, delete them from the Entries tab. A class that has already covered Q, X and Z, or a category game where those letters are too hard, can simply take them off. You can also type your own letters or characters into the list, up to 1,000 entries.

The letter is chosen by the browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues) when you press Spin, before the wheel starts to move. The animation then turns to the slice that was already picked, so the speed or timing of your click cannot influence the result.

With A to Z in one case, each letter has a 1 in 26 chance, about 3.8%. Each vowel has a 1 in 5 chance on the Vowels wheel, and each consonant a 1 in 21 chance on the Consonants wheel.

• 1 in 26

  Each letter on A to Z

  about 3.8%

• 1 in 5

  Each vowel on Vowels

  20%

• 1 in 21

  Each consonant on Consonants

  about 4.8%

Each spin is independent. The same letter can come up twice in a row, and a letter that has not appeared in ten spins is no more likely to come next. The Entries tab also has a Weights setting. If you switch it on and give a letter a larger share, the wheel is no longer even, so leave it off for a fair spin.

The wheel gives one letter per spin. It has no "pick five letters" button, but you can get the same result with two steps.

1. 1

   Spin

   The wheel stops on a letter.

2. 2

   Remove winner

   On the result card, choose Remove winner. That letter leaves the wheel.

Repeat

Repeat until you have the letters you need. Five spins with Remove winner give five different letters. When you want the full alphabet back, press the A to Z choice again.

This suits a round where each letter should be used once, such as one letter per player or one letter per round of a category game.

• Category games. Everyone writes a country, an animal, a food and a name that start with the letter, in the style of Scattergories. The wheel chooses, so nobody can say the letter was picked to suit one player. Delete Q, X and Z first if the round should stay playable.
• Spelling and vocabulary. The class lists words that start with the spun letter, or that contain it, in two minutes. Use Consonants to practise consonant sounds and Vowels for vowel practice.
• Alphabet practice for young children. With ABC + abc, ask the child to say the letter and then point to its other form. Read aloud says the letter as a check.
• Guessing rounds. Turn on Mystery result and let the group guess the letter with yes or no questions, such as "is it in the first half of the alphabet?"
• Writing prompts. Spin two or three times and use the letters as the initials of a character, a place or an invention.
• Who goes first. Give each player a letter before the spin. Whoever owns the letter that comes up starts.

• 

  Mystery wheel

  Shows a question mark on every slice, so nobody can read the wheel while it spins.

• 

  Mystery result

  Keeps the result card at a question mark until you press Reveal answer.

• Read aloud

  Speaks each result with your browser's voice. The button only shows if your browser supports speech, and the voice depends on your device. A single lowercase "a" is spoken as the capital letter, so it is not read as the word.

• To pick a person from a list, use the Random Name Picker.
• For a number instead of a letter, the Random Number Generator takes any range.
• To pair the letter with a category, spin the Random Country Generator or the Random Animal Generator.
• For anything else you can list, Spin the Wheel takes your own entries.