WheelJarPull a letter out of the alphabet.
Random letter generator
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Each of the 26 letters is equally likely
Five words and a prompt
WeeklyFive drawn words and one instruction, every Monday. For writers, teachers and anyone who runs a games night.
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How do you pick a random letter of the alphabet?
Draw an index from 0 to 25 with a cryptographic random generator and read off the letter — every one of the 26 gets a flat 3.85% chance. The set switch narrows the pool: vowels only gives five letters at 20% each, consonants only gives 21 at 4.76% each. Ask for several letters at once and each is drawn independently, so repeats are possible and correct.
A flat draw is not how English behaves, which is the point and occasionally the problem. In real text E and T turn up constantly while Q, X and Z barely appear, so a uniform generator hands out the awkward letters at exactly the same rate as the useful ones. For a category game that means roughly one round in nine will land on a letter nobody can work with.
The fix is a house rule, not a rigged generator: agree in advance to redraw on Q, X and Z, or switch to the consonants set when the game needs a starting sound.
Three sets, three sets of odds. The one you want depends on whether you need a letter or a sound.
| Set | Letters in pool | Chance each | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A–Z | 26 | 3.85% | Category games, naming exercises |
| Vowels | 5 | 20% | Phonics drills, word-building puzzles |
| Consonants | 21 | 4.76% | Starting sounds, alliteration games |
Drawing several letters at once is an independent draw each time, so repeats happen — ask for five from the full alphabet and you will see a duplicate more often than not across a few rounds. If you need five different letters, draw them one at a time and skip the ones you already have.
For prompts rather than initials, try the random word generator; for a numbered pick from any range, the random number generator is the general-purpose version of this page.
Frequently asked questions
What are the odds of each letter?
One in 26, or 3.85%, on the full alphabet — the same for Z as for A. Restrict to vowels and each of A, E, I, O and U gets 20%; restrict to consonants and each of the 21 gets 4.76%. The draw takes no notice of how common a letter is in English, which is what makes it a fair pick rather than a realistic one.
Can I use it for Scattergories-style games?
That is the main use, and it beats a letter die because you can rerun it instantly when a round dies on an impossible letter. Agree the redraw rule before you start — most groups drop Q, X and Z, some also drop U and V. Deciding that mid-game, after someone has just been handed a Z, is how arguments start.
Will the same letter repeat if I ask for several?
Yes. Each letter is drawn independently from the whole set, so asking for five letters can easily return two of the same. That is the correct behaviour for a repeated draw, and with 26 letters a repeat in five is more likely than most people guess — a bit over a third of the time, by the same birthday-problem logic that makes shared birthdays common.
Is it useful for teaching phonics?
It works well as a neutral prompt generator: draw a letter, name a word beginning with that sound, draw again. The vowels and consonants sets are the useful part here, because they let you drill one category at a time. Bear in mind it produces letters, not sounds — English spelling being what it is, C and G will need adult supervision.
Can I get lowercase letters, or a full random string?
The generator returns letters from the alphabet you select and is built for games and prompts rather than for generating identifiers or passwords. For anything security-related, use a dedicated password tool — a short random string from a 26-letter alphabet has far less strength than its length suggests, and passwords are not a job for a game page.
Is anything saved?
No. Letters are generated in the page, displayed, and forgotten as soon as you draw again. Nothing is stored on your device and nothing is sent to a server, so there is no history to consult if you forget which letter the round started on — which is a good argument for someone writing it down.
How the randomness works
crypto.getRandomValues and mapping it onto the size
of the chosen set with rejection sampling — leftover values are discarded and redrawn, so A is not
even fractionally more likely than Z. The three sets are the full 26-letter alphabet, the five
vowels A, E, I, O and U, and the remaining 21 consonants, with Y treated as a consonant. Multiple
letters are drawn independently rather than dealt from a shrinking pool, which is why repeats can
occur. Nothing is stored, seeded or transmitted between draws.Worked example
With Draw from A to Z, How many letters 1, this page works out —. Each of the 26 letters is equally likely
Sources:
Fair to the alphabet, unfair to the player
A uniform alphabet draw is fair in the mathematical sense and unfair in the practical one. Handing a player Z gives them a far harder task than handing them S, and no amount of correct probability makes that feel just. Games that use letters solve it with hardware — the classic category-game die simply omits the worst letters — and you can solve it here by agreeing a redraw rule up front.
The reverse case is the useful one. When you want a genuinely unpredictable starting point for a naming exercise, a writing prompt or a seating plan, the flat draw is exactly right, because human choices cluster hard on the letters near the front of the alphabet and on initials people already like.
For prompts with more substance than a single letter, the random word generator hands out whole words, which is the better raw material for charades, writing sparks and anything where a bare consonant would leave everyone staring.