Word Search

What is Word Search?

Word Search is a clean, fast word search game that runs in your browser with nothing to download. Every puzzle has a theme, from Wild Animals and Outer Space to World Food, Music, Weather and Capital Cities, with 66 themes in all. Find every word hidden in the grid of letters as quickly as you can: drag across a word with your finger or mouse and the selection snaps to a straight line, or tap the first letter and then the last.

There's a new daily puzzle every day, the same grid for everyone, plus unlimited puzzles whenever you want another. Choose Easy for an 8×8 grid where words only run right or down, Medium for 11×11 with diagonals, or Hard for a 14×14 grid where words hide in all eight directions, backwards included. Found words light up in their own colour, a hint shows you where a word starts, and your progress, best times and daily streak are saved in your browser.

How to play Word Search

1. Pick Daily for today's puzzle or Unlimited for a fresh one, then choose Easy, Medium or Hard. In Unlimited you can also choose a theme or leave it on Random.
2. Find a word from the list in the grid. Drag from its first letter to its last; the selection snaps to the nearest straight line in any of the eight directions.
3. Prefer tapping? Tap the first letter, then tap the last letter. On a keyboard, move with the arrow keys and press Space or Enter on the first and last letters.
4. Each word you find gets a coloured capsule in the grid and is crossed off the list. Stuck? Hint highlights the first letter of a word you haven't found yet.
5. Find every word to stop the clock. Your time is compared with your best for that size, and daily wins build your streak.

Word Search tips and strategy

• Scan for unusual letters first. A word with a J, Q, X, Z, K or W stands out in the grid far more than one made of common letters like E, A and S.
• Look for double letters such as the LL in GORILLA or the OO in KANGAROO; pairs are rarer than single letters and easier to spot.
• On Hard, words can run backwards and upwards, so when you find a word's first letter, check all eight neighbours for its second letter before moving on.
• Work through the list from the longest word down. Long words cover more of the grid, and the short words are easier to find once the long ones are out of the way.
• Use a hint only when you're truly stuck: it costs nothing but it shows on your result, and the timer keeps running either way.
• Turn your phone sideways or tap Full screen for the biggest possible grid, with the word list beside it.

Word search rules and the three sizes

A word search is a grid of letters with a list of words hidden in it. Each word reads in a straight line, letter by letter, and words can cross and share letters. Your job is to find and mark every word on the list. Here every listed word appears exactly once, and the filler letters are checked so they never spell an extra copy of a listed word by accident.

Easy is an 8×8 grid with eight words that only read left to right or top to bottom, a good start for children and new players. Medium is an 11×11 grid with twelve words that can also run diagonally. Hard is a 14×14 grid with sixteen words that can run in all eight directions, including backwards and upwards, with more decoy letters taken from the words themselves.

Strategies for finding words faster

Experienced solvers mix two methods. Word by word: take one word, pick its rarest letter, find every copy of that letter in the grid and check around each one. Row by row: sweep your eyes along each row, column and diagonal looking for any word on the list. The first is better for long or unusual words, the second for mopping up short ones at the end.

On a phone, dragging is fastest once you're comfortable: you don't need to be precise, because the selection snaps to the nearest straight line and the nearest letter. If your thumb covers the letters, use tap-first, tap-last instead; the first letter stays highlighted until you tap the last.

The daily puzzle and unlimited play

The daily word search changes at midnight in your time zone and is the same for every player, with one theme a day and its own grid at each size. Solve it on the day to grow your streak. Unlimited builds a brand-new puzzle in an instant, from the theme of your choice or a random one, so there's always another grid to try.

Word Search FAQ