Word Search

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.

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).