Python File I/O

I have a words.txt file that looks like:

the
of
and
to


And a python script that looks like:


import random
y = ""
z = 0

openfile = open('words.txt', 'r')
contents = openfile.read()
openfile.close()
print contents

for i in range (len(contents)):
    x = random.choice(contents)
    if x == """
""":
        y == """
"""
    else:
        y = ""
        print x
        z = z + 1
        while x != y:
            y = raw_input('>>>')
print z

I want the output to be the full words, but it outputs just letter like:


o
>>>o
o
>>>o
a
>>>a
n
>>>n
t
>>>t
e
>>>e
h
>>>h


Any help?

Here comes the proportional calamity.

>>9
And what have you contributed to /prog/ recently, other than acting like a child?