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This article is about the word game. For other uses, see Jumble (disambiguation).

Jumble is a word puzzle with a clue, a drawing illustrating the clue, and a set of words, each of which is “jumbled” by scrambling its letters. A solver reconstructs the words, and then arranges letters at marked positions in the words to spell the answer phrase to the clue. The clue and illustration always provide hints about the answer phrase. The answer phrase frequently uses a homophone or pun.

Jumble was created in 1954 by Martin Naydel, who is better known for his work on comic books.[1][2] It originally appeared under the title "Scramble".[3] Henri Arnold and Bob Lee took over the feature in 1962 and continued for at least 30 years.[4] As of 2013, Jumble is created by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek.[5][6] Jumble is one of the most valuable properties of its distributor, US company Tribune Content Agency, which owns the JUMBLE trademarks and copyrights. Daily and Sunday Jumble puzzles appear in over 600 newspapers in the United States and internationally.

The current syndicated version found in most daily newspapers (under the official title Jumble, That Scrambled Word Game) has four base anagrams, two of five letters and two of six, followed by a clue and a series of blank spaces in which the answer to the clue fits. The answer to the clue is generally a pun of some sort. A weekly "kids version" of the puzzle features a 3-letter word plus three 4-letter words. In order to find the letters that are in the answer to the given clue, the player must unscramble all four of the scrambled words; the letters that are in the clue will be circled. The contestant then unscrambles the circled letters to form the answer to the clue. An alternate workaround is to solve some of the scrambled words, figure out the answer to the clue without all the letters, then use the "extra" letters as aids to solve the remaining scrambled words.

There are many variations of puzzles from the Jumble brand including Jumble, Jumble for Kids, Jumble Crosswords, TV Jumble, Jumble BrainBusters, Jumble BrainBusters Junior, Hollywood Jumble, Jumble Jong, Jumble Word Vault, Jumpin' Jumble, Jumble Solitaire, and Jumble Word Web.[7]

In other media[edit]

In addition to being playable online through various interactive online platform such as on Universal Uclick's Web site in an Adobe Flash implementation, Jumble is downloadable through several mobile game applications such as Apple's iTunes, AT&T and on the Amazon Kindle.

As of 2012, Jumble books were published by Andrews McMeel Publishing,[8] Triumph Books,[9] and Tyndale House Publishers.[10]

Jumble is also available as a Bicycle playing card by United States Playing Card Company with an assortment of game titles such as "3-4-5," "Jumble Word Meld," and "Jumble Solitaire."

A TV game show based on Jumble aired in 1994. It was hosted by game show veteran Wink Martindale, and aired on The Family Channel (now called ABC Family).[citation needed]

In the Seinfeld episode “The Pez Dispenser,” Kramer, upon hearing that George Costanza was doing crossword puzzles with his girlfriend, said, “I like the Jumble. You ever do the Jumble?”[11][12]

In the Strong Bad email web cartoon from Homestar Runner entitled "Caper," Strong Bad and The Cheat break into Homestar's house to steal the Jumbles from his newspapers. Strong Bad refers to this in song as "The Jumble Caper."

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Don Markstein's Toonopedia, “McSnurtle the Turtle”
  2. ^ Thomas, Roy (7 July 2004). All Star Companion: An Historical and Speculative Overview of the Justice Society of America. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-893905-05-4. Retrieved 10 March 2012. 
  3. ^ "Scramble". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 4, 1954. p. 11. 
  4. ^ "Anagrammatically Speaking". The Hendersonville Times-News. May 3, 1993. p. 10. 
  5. ^ "Download and Play casual games". UCLICK Games. Retrieved 2013-08-20. 
  6. ^ http://www.tmsfeatures.com/games-puzzles/jumble/daily-jumble/
  8. ^ "New Puzzle & Games Books". Andrews McMeel Publishing. Retrieved August 11, 2012. 
  9. ^ "Puzzle Books". Triumph Books. Retrieved August 11, 2012. 
  10. ^ "News & Notes". Tyndale House Catalogs. Retrieved August 11, 2012. 
  11. ^ quotespants.com
  12. ^ seinology.com