How to play
Every word on the list beside the grid is in there somewhere, written in one straight, unbroken line. Put your finger (or the pointer) on the opening letter and slide to the closing one; the highlight snaps to the nearest straight line, so a wobbly drag still counts. Two separate taps, opening letter then closing letter, do the same job. A word you find is struck off the list and keeps its coloured band in the grid.
Each word appears exactly once. The letters in between are filler, but they are taken from the theme's own words, so the grid is full of near misses: half a word, the right letters in the wrong order. That is what makes a good word search more than a hunt for single letters.
Strategy that works
- Start with the odd letters. A K, a Z or a double letter shows up in only a few cells. Find those cells first and check the lines that run through them.
- Look for letter pairs. One E is in every row, but the opening pair of a word — say an E beside an X — appears in only a couple of places.
- Sweep, don't zigzag. Go through all rows from the left, then all columns from the top, then the diagonals; a steady sweep misses far less than a gaze that jumps about.
- On the top floor, read backwards on purpose. Backwards words are the ones people miss. One slow right-to-left pass over the rows usually turns up two or three of them.
- Leave the short words for last. Three- and four-letter words have many false starts; once the long ones are crossed off, fewer letters remain to confuse you.
The three floors
On the first floor the grid is 8 by 8 and words only run across and down, so you can read it like a page. The second floor widens the grid to 10 by 10 and adds diagonals. The top floor uses a 12 by 12 grid with words in all eight directions, backwards included. Themes rotate through twenty-one sets of words in each language.
Questions
Could the same word turn up twice in one grid?
Never. While a grid is generated, a check runs along all eight directions: each listed word appears once and only once, and none is tucked inside a longer one.
Do I have to drag?
No. Tapping the first letter and then the last letter works too, and on a keyboard you can move with the arrow keys and confirm with Enter.
Why are some grids in Italian, Hungarian or Finnish?
The language of a puzzle follows the language of the page. Each language has its own themed word lists, written for that language rather than translated word for word.
What does the hint button do?
It lights up the opening letter of a word still missing. The result screen counts the hints you used, so a clean run stays visible.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in this browser. Leave in the middle of a grid and it will be waiting, with the words you found, when you come back.