terrible solver for Three Letters Game — https://threelettersgame.com/

tlg.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# terrible solver for Three Letters Game — https://threelettersgame.com/
# scruss, 2026-02
# https://xoxo.zone/@scruss/116031000239771734

dict="/usr/share/dict/words"

# usage
if
  [ "$#" -lt 3 ]
then
  echo usage: "$0" first second third [dictionary_file]
  exit 1
fi

# last arg is optional dictionary file
if
  [ "$#" -gt 3 ]
then
  dict="$4"
fi

# dict file must exist
if
  [ ! -f "$dict" ]
then
  echo $0 error: "$dict" file must exist
  exit 1
fi

# process three args to lower case and initial letter
# yes, zsh would be better for this
fl=${1,,}
sl=${2,,}
tl=${3,,}
first=${fl:0:1}
second=${sl:0:1}
third=${tl:0:1}
# for B, D & R, construct  '^b[^r]*d.*r'
regex="^${first}[^${third}]*${second}.*${third}"

grep -P '^[abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]{3,15}$' "$dict" |\
  grep "$regex" |\
  while read -r w
  do
	  score=$(echo "$w" |\
		  tr 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' \
		     '1332142418513113:11114484:' |\
		  sed 's/./ &/g;s/^  *//;s/:/10/g;s/ /+/g;' | bc)
	  echo "$score" "$w"
  done |\
	sort -nr |\
	head -20