Have you all come across.....

[powyco]

this website ? www.oneacross.com. It can be remarkably stupid, but often comes up with help. Worth a look.

[jadzia49]

I find it completely useless.The idea is fantastic but it doesn't do the job it should.It's a great shame.:(

[powyco]

Strangely enough, I've sometimes found it useless on simple things, but quite often it's helped with more abstruse stuff. It seems to have a big vocabulary base.

[jan1956]

i find
http://www.onelook.com/
a much better one as you can put a ? for letters missing and if it gives many answers you can narrow the search by putting a word from the clue in a box
jan

[powyco]

Thanks, jan1956, I'll give this a try.

[wideboy]

I use it on and off. Does give some funny answers but managed to get two for me today - material IRONSTONE; and surveillance equipment SNOOPERSCOPE (it also came up with ENTOPTOSCOPE) but only when I put scope at the end - it didn't get them with just the 'miising' letters (I assumed it was a scope).

I also use this one a lot:-

http://www.a2zwordfinder.com/

[powyco]

Thanks for the alternative site, wideboy. I'll try it. I'm just wondering what crossword came up with the .'.....scope' words. Sunday Times ?

[wideboy]

Yes, the Times.