Word Search
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Find the hidden words in every direction. Words that belong to your language.
- Players
- 1
- Length
- 3–12 min
- Difficulty
- Several levels
- Genre
- Puzzle
How to play
- The list shows the words to find. They run in a straight line, unbroken, in one of eight directions.
- To mark a word, select from its first letter to its last. If it matches a word on the list, it gets highlighted and crossed off.
- Letters can be shared: two words may cross on the same cell.
- In languages where accents don’t make a different letter (Spanish, French, Portuguese…) the grid drops them; where they do (Spanish Ñ, German Ä Ö Ü) they stay. The list always shows the word properly spelled.
- The game ends when you’ve found them all. Your time and hints used go into your stats.
Controls
- Select a word
- Drag with the mouse or your finger from the first letter to the last
- Select by tapping
- Tap the first letter, then the last
- Keyboard
- Arrow keys to move; Enter or Space marks the start and end; Escape cancels
- Hint
- Marks the first letter of a word you haven’t found yet (shortest first)
Description
A word search in English: find every word on the list in the grid, hidden across, down, diagonally and, on the higher levels, backwards too. Each grid is built on the spot, so it never repeats.
The words aren’t a translated list: they come from the same bank of everyday English words as Hangman. And every word appears exactly once in the grid; if you see the same sequence in two places, one of them isn’t complete.
A word search built on the spot from each language’s own words, with every word appearing exactly once. Four levels change the grid size, the number of words and the directions. Your progress stays in your browser.
Modes and difficulty
Easy
An 8×8 grid, 6 short words, only left to right and top to bottom. Great for kids or a short break.
Normal
A 10×10 grid and 8 words; diagonals appear, always read forwards.
Hard
A 12×12 grid, 10 longer words and all eight directions: right to left and bottom to top too.
Expert
A 14×14 grid and 12 long words, many crossing each other, with decoy letters that mimic the start of other words.
Tips
- Look for rare letters first. A word with J, K, Q, X or Z stands out long before one full of vowels.
- Once you have the first letter, don’t read the whole word: look for the second letter among the eight neighbours. If it’s not there, that wasn’t it.
- Long words are easier than they look: there are few places they fit, especially diagonally.
- On Hard and Expert, remember to read backwards too: a word can start at the right edge and run left.
Strategy
Sweep the grid row by row looking for a single letter (all the Zs, say) instead of a whole word. When you finish, you know exactly where words with that letter can start.
Letters already used help too: when a word crosses one you’ve found, the shared cell is often the quickest starting point.
FAQ
Are the words the same in every language?
No. Each language has its own word bank, chosen for that language. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other writing systems, the grid uses that language’s own characters or syllables.
Can a word appear twice?
No. The generator checks the whole grid and rebuilds it until every word on the list appears exactly once, in a single direction.
Where is my progress stored?
In your browser: the game in progress, your times per level, the words you’ve found and your achievements.
Mastery
How well you know each game: its achievements, the games you finished and your records. Worked out from your real progress in this browser.
Your performance
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