How to play word search
- Pick a theme and a difficulty. A new puzzle appears straight away.
- Find a word from the list in the grid, then drag from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter and then the last.
- Found words are marked in the grid and crossed off the list. Find them all to stop the clock.
Every puzzle is made fresh in your browser, so New puzzle never runs out. Copy link gives you a link to exactly this puzzle, to send to someone who wants to try the same one.
The three levels
| Level | Grid | Words | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 10 × 10 | 8 | Across and down only |
| Medium | 12 × 12 | 12 | Across, down and both diagonals |
| Hard | 15 × 15 | 16 | Every direction, backwards included |
Easy suits younger children and quick breaks. Hard is a proper challenge for adults: words can run backwards and diagonally, and cross each other.
Tips for finding words faster
- Hunt for the first two letters together, rather than the first letter alone, and follow them in each direction. A pair turns up far less often than a single letter.
- Look for double letters. The two Ls in BALLOON or the two Os in SPOOKY stand out once you look for them.
- Search for long words first. They cross the most rows, and finding them clears space for the rest.
- Scan one row at a time with a finger or the pointer when you are stuck, then do the same with the columns.
- On Hard, read backwards too. Try looking for a word’s last letters first.
Themes
There are themes for animals, food, fruit and vegetables, the ocean, space, weather, sports, jobs, school, countries, music, nature and autumn, plus holiday puzzles: the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas word search. Each theme has around thirty words, and every puzzle picks a different handful of them.
Print it
Print puts the puzzle on paper exactly as it is on screen. For answer keys, large print or several different puzzles in one go, use the printable word search. To use your own words, such as a spelling list, use the word search maker.
Prefer numbers? Try Sudoku. For pictures, try the memory game. With the same categories, one letter at a time: hangman.