Word Search

Find 15–30 hidden words in a grid of letters. Drag to highlight them.

How to play Word Search

A grid of letters hides a list of words you need to find. Each word is placed in a straight line — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal — forwards or backwards. Find every word as quickly as you can.

Controls

Click and drag from the first letter of a word to its last letter. The cells under the drag are highlighted as you go.
Release when you reach the last letter. If your selection forms a word from the list, it’s marked found and painted with a coloured stripe. If not, the selection clears.
On touch devices, swipe across the letters with your finger — same gesture, no buttons to tap.
The smiley button (top centre of the HUD) starts a new game with a fresh grid and word list.

Difficulty levels

Easy — 12 × 12 grid, 15 words, 8 directions but no reversed words. Good for warming up and learning the gestures.
Medium — 14 × 14 grid, 20 words, 8 directions including reversed.
Hard — 16 × 16 grid, 30 words, all 8 directions including reversed. The classic word-search experience.

Tips

Scan the word list and pick a word with an unusual letter (Q, X, Z) — there are usually only one or two of those in the grid, so they’re easy spots to start from.
Long words have fewer possible placements, so try those after the unusual-letter ones.
On Hard mode, remember reversed words exist — the same letters spell things in both directions, so don’t skip a row just because you read it left to right and didn’t see anything.
Diagonals are easy to miss. Train your eyes to scan diagonally occasionally.

A short history of the word search

The word search is younger than most classic puzzles. It is widely credited to Norman E. Gibat, who published an early version in a giveaway newspaper in Norman, Oklahoma, in the late 1960s. Teachers quickly noticed that hunting for hidden vocabulary kept students engaged, and the format spread through classrooms, puzzle books, and the back pages of magazines. Today it is one of the most popular pencil puzzles in the world precisely because it has almost no learning curve — if you can read, you can play.

Beneath that simplicity is a genuine perception challenge. Your brain is very good at reading words left to right, and the puzzle works by hiding words in the seven other directions your eyes are not used to scanning. Getting faster is mostly about training yourself to look in those directions on purpose.

How to find words faster

Hunt rare letters first. Q, X, Z, J and K appear in very few grid cells, so a word containing one is easy to pin down — find the letter, then check the eight directions around it.
Scan for first letters. Pick the starting letter of a word and sweep the grid for it, then test each match outward in all directions.
Sweep one direction at a time. Do a pass looking only for vertical words, then only diagonals. Forcing a single direction is faster than hoping to spot everything at once.
Don’t forget reversed words. On Medium and Hard, words can run backwards. A row you “already read” left to right may still hide a word spelled right to left.

Frequently asked questions

In which directions can words be hidden?

Up to eight: horizontal, vertical, and both diagonals, each forwards or backwards. Easy mode leaves out the reversed directions so beginners can get comfortable; Medium and Hard use all eight.

Are the puzzles always different?

Yes. Every round builds a fresh grid and word list from a built-in library, so you can play unlimited puzzles without repeats — even offline.

Are word searches good for learning?

They are a classic vocabulary and spelling aid, which is why teachers have used them for decades. For adults they make a relaxing, low-pressure way to keep your visual scanning sharp.

Any tips for the Hard 16×16 grid?

Work the longest words first — they have the fewest possible placements — and deliberately include diagonal and reversed sweeps, which is where most of the remaining words on Hard tend to hide.

Offline play

Once the game is loaded, it runs entirely in your browser. New puzzles are generated from a built-in word library — you can play unlimited rounds even with no internet connection. Scores you earn while offline are queued and uploaded automatically the next time you reconnect (only if you’re logged in).