Random Letter Generator

How to generate a random letter

With the default settings one press gives a single capital letter drawn from a to z. Each of the 26 letters has the same chance, 1 ÷ 26 or about 3.85%. The earlier draw has no influence on the next, so the same letter can show up twice in a row.

Clear Output in uppercase if you prefer lowercase. The tool does not mix cases by itself; to include both, type the lowercase and uppercase letters into the alphabet box.

How to generate a random letter sequence

Raise Sequence length (up to 10,000 letters) to get several letters at once, and choose a Letter separator: none, space, comma, dash or a new line. The separator is added after every letter, the last one included, so a comma-separated result ends in a comma. Delete it from the copied text if you do not need it.

Tick Unique letters in sequence to draw without replacement. No letter will appear twice, which makes the sequence a random ordering of part of the alphabet. It can be no longer than the alphabet, so a unique sequence from the default 26 letters stops at 26.

sequences = 26^LLetters may repeat

sequences = 26 × 25 × … × (26 − L + 1)Unique letters

Example: a four-letter sequence with repeats allowed can take 26⁴ = 456,976 forms, so a specific word such as GAME turns up with probability 1 in 456,976.

Using a custom alphabet

The Alphabet to use box accepts any list of letters separated by commas, spaces, tabs or line breaks. That makes it easy to narrow the draw or change the odds:

• Vowels only: a e i o u gives each vowel a 20% chance, and a three-letter run has 5³ = 125 forms.
• Consonants only: remove the vowels from the list.
• Another script: paste Greek, Cyrillic or any other characters, one after another with spaces.
• Weighted letters: list a letter more than once. In a a b the letter a is twice as likely as b.

The alphabet needs at least two entries. Note that with the unique option on, a letter listed twice can be drawn twice, because the two entries count as separate items.

Applications of random letters

Word games. Draw the starting letter for a category game, where players have a minute to list a name, an animal and a place that begin with it. Draw several for a letter grid, or hand a tiebreaker to chance.

The alphabet game. On a trip or in a classroom, pick a letter and have everyone name things that begin with it. Set the separator to a new line if you want a tidy list of letters to read down, one per round.

Other uses. Random initials for sample records, cipher keys for puzzles, and drills for spelling practice. For codes that mix letters with digits use the random alphanumeric generator, and for longer random text the random string generator.