Update Policy
How and When the Database Changes

Update Triggers — When Does the Database Change?

Three categories of events trigger a database update. First: a new edition or revision of one of the three source word lists (TWL, Collins Scrabble Words, British English vocabulary supplement). When an official source list releases new words or corrections, the database is regenerated to incorporate those changes. Second: a verified user report of a gap — a word absent from the database that appears in one of the three source lists. After verification, the word is added in the next regeneration. Third: a systematic review that identifies inconsistencies or errors in the current database.

There is no fixed release schedule. Updates occur when one of these triggers is met. A significant year may see several updates (if multiple source list revisions occur); a stable year may see zero or one.

The Fingerprinting System — Version Identification

Every database version has a unique implementation fingerprint — a short hexadecimal string derived from the database content. The current fingerprint is 916f47949b41. This fingerprint appears on every statistics page alongside the generation date.

The fingerprint serves two purposes. First, it allows readers to determine whether they are viewing statistics from the current database or an older version. Second, it allows computations to be verified: any statistic published with fingerprint 916f47949b41 can be independently reproduced by running the same computation against the same database version and will produce the same result.

What Stays Constant Between Updates

Between database updates, everything is deterministic and stable. Tool results do not vary between visits. The same prefix search always returns the same results. The same anagram always produces the same candidate set. The same pattern always matches the same words. This determinism is a deliberate design choice: users can rely on consistent results and cite specific tool outputs without the results changing unexpectedly.

Page URLs do not change between updates. The URL structure is stable regardless of database version. Bookmarks and external links continue to work after updates, though the results for a given query may change if words were added or removed.

Practical Impact of Updates — What Users Should Know

For most users, database updates are transparent. If a word you could not find before becomes available after an update, that is the expected result of the source word lists expanding. If a word you could find before disappears after an update, that is the expected result of a correction. The implementation fingerprint changing is the indicator that any such changes have occurred.

For competitive Scrabble players, database updates are potentially more significant. If the source word lists add or remove words from the official Scrabble lexicon, those additions or removals appear in the next database update. This could affect which words are accepted in tournament play. Players are advised to verify word validity with their tournament's official word checker for any competitive game. This tool serves as a practice and exploration resource, not as the authoritative source for tournament validity.

For researchers citing statistics from this site, the implementation fingerprint is the essential citation element. A paper or article citing a word count, frequency percentage, or anagram family count from this site should include the fingerprint in the citation so that future readers can verify whether the cited figure still matches the current database or reflects an earlier version. The format for citing a statistic is: "MyAnagramSolver Word Database Statistics, fingerprint 916f47949b41, generated 2026-07-27."

For tool developers linking to this site or embedding its tools, the wordlist.js file URL is stable across database updates. The file content changes when the database is updated, but the URL does not. Developers who cache the wordlist.js file should implement cache invalidation based on the implementation fingerprint or use a header-based approach to detect file changes.

The update policy for the non-database content (tool interfaces, statistical pages, EEAT pages, schema markup) follows standard web development practice: pages are updated when improvements are made or errors are corrected. These updates do not change the implementation fingerprint, which is tied only to the word database content.

Version History — Documenting Changes

Database version history is documented by the sequence of implementation fingerprints. The current fingerprint (916f47949b41) represents the database state as of 2026-07-27. Previous fingerprints represent earlier database states. Statistics pages display the fingerprint and date at which they were generated, allowing readers to identify whether a cached or archived version of a statistics page reflects the current or an older database. If you are citing statistics from this site in academic or professional work, include the fingerprint and generation date as part of the citation to establish which database version the statistics describe.

Transparency Commitment — What We Will Always Disclose

Every database update results in updated fingerprints and generation dates on all statistics pages. Users will always be able to determine whether they are viewing current or historical statistics. We commit to never presenting outdated statistics as current without updating the generation date. We commit to disclosing all known limitations of each statistics computation in the relevant methodology documentation. We commit to responding to gap and error reports with either a correction or a documented explanation of why no change is warranted.