About Word Search
Word search is the puzzle that asks nothing of you except attention. A square of letters, a list of words, and the words are in there somewhere — forwards, backwards, up, down, or along either diagonal. There is no clock forcing your hand and no wrong answer to be embarrassed by. You either see it or you have not seen it yet.
Every puzzle here is generated fresh, so there is no fixed set to exhaust. Pick a size — ten, twelve or fourteen letters square — and a theme is chosen at random from six word pools. The filler letters between the answers are weighted toward the letters of the words that are actually hidden, which is a small detail that matters: uniformly random filler makes the answers stand out, and this does not.
How to play
- Drag across a straight line of letters — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — to select them.
- Release. If the letters spell a word from the list, it locks in and gets struck off.
- Words can run in any of the eight directions, including backwards, and they are allowed to cross each other.
- The clock starts on your first drag, not when the page loads.
- Stuck? The hint button flashes the first letter of a word you have not found, at a cost of ten seconds.
Five tips that actually move your score
- Scan for the rare letters first. J, Q, X and Z appear in very few words, so if one is in your list, find that letter in the grid and you have found the word. Same for double letters.
- Search by first letter, not by shape. Pick a word, fix its opening letter in your head, and sweep the grid for that letter alone. Trying to spot the whole word at once is much slower than it feels.
- Do the diagonals deliberately. Most people find the horizontals and verticals almost for free, then stall. When you are down to the last few words, they are nearly always on a diagonal or reversed.
- Work the edges when you are stuck. Long words have to start near a border to fit, so a nine-letter answer on a ten-wide grid has very few possible positions.
- Use the theme. Knowing the puzzle is about weather tells you the remaining words are weather words, which changes what your eye is primed to notice.
Frequently asked questions
Are the puzzles the same every time?
No. The grid, the placements and the filler letters are generated fresh on every new puzzle, and the theme is picked at random from six pools.
Which directions are used?
All eight — left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, and all four diagonals.
Can words overlap?
Yes, and they often do. Sharing a letter with another word is allowed and makes for a denser, better puzzle.
Does the hint button cost me?
It adds ten seconds to your time, which matters only because your fastest clear is recorded. It is not otherwise penalised.
