A new word search every time, or the daily one. Three levels, drag or tap to find words, a timer, and a short definition for every word.
A word search hides a list of words in a grid of letters, and you find each one by marking its first and last letter. Easy is a 10 by 10 grid with 8 words of 4 to 8 letters, and the words run left to right or top to bottom. Medium is 12 by 12 with 10 words of 4 to 10 letters, and it adds diagonals that run down to the right or up to the right. Hard is 15 by 15 with 14 words of 5 to 12 letters, and words can run in all 8 directions, so they can also read backwards, right to left, bottom to top or up to the left. A word that you find gets a colour band over its letters and a coloured chip in the word list. The timer stops when the last word is found.
Press on the first letter of a word and drag toward the last one. The selection snaps to the nearest of the 8 directions, so your finger does not have to be exact: dragging from row 3, column 3 to row 3, column 7 selects those 5 letters in a straight line. You can also tap the first letter and then tap the last letter, which is easier on a small phone screen. Tap the same letter twice to cancel. A word counts whether you select it forwards or backwards. With a keyboard, press Tab to reach the grid, use the arrow keys to move, press Enter or Space on the first letter and again on the last, and press Escape to cancel. On a 15 by 15 board the letters are small, about 24 pixels wide on a narrow phone, so tapping two letters or dragging is more reliable than tapping a single letter.
Words come from a list of about 5,200 common English words, each with a short dictionary definition; about 4,950 remain after a family-safe filter that drops any word or definition containing a blocklisted word or root in any form (suicidal, assault, killing), product names such as the Windows operating system, and a short list of words removed after reading the whole filtered list. The filter is not perfect, so a word you dislike can slip through. The puzzle is made from a seed number from 1 to 999,999, so the same seed always gives the same puzzle. Words are placed longest first at random positions and directions, and if a word cannot be placed the builder steps back and tries another position, within a fixed limit of attempts. Empty squares are filled with letters chosen in proportion to how often each letter occurs in the word list itself. The finished grid is then scanned in all 8 directions: every listed word must appear exactly once, and no blocklisted word may appear in the filler or across two words. A harmless piece inside a listed word, such as ASS inside CLASS, is allowed. If the scan fails, the filler is redrawn or the puzzle is rebuilt. No word in a puzzle is part of another word in the same puzzle.
Tap a word in the list to see its definition, which is the first short gloss of its most common meaning in WordNet 3.1, a lexical database from Princeton University. A definition can read oddly for a word with several meanings, and it never contains the answer. The Theme choice sorts words by keywords in their definitions, and a theme is offered only when the list holds at least 40 words for it. Food passes that test. Animals, Nature, Body and Home do not, so they are left out. The Daily puzzle is a Medium puzzle seeded from today's date on your device, such as 2026-10-15, so everyone with the same date gets the same puzzle. Your found words and time are saved in this browser for each puzzle, and the last 12 puzzles are kept. Best times and streaks are kept per level.
This page is for playing on screen. To print a word search with your own words, a square or rectangular grid and an answer key, use the Word Search Maker on this site, which makes a PDF. The two tools are separate: the Maker places the words you type, and this page chooses its own words and checks that each appears once and that nothing from the blocklist appears. The puzzles here do not have an answer button. If you are stuck, tap a word in the list to read its definition, which is a clue to what the word means.
Drag from its first letter to its last, or tap the first letter and then the last one. The line snaps to the nearest of 8 directions. A 10 by 10 Easy puzzle has 8 words, and a found word gets a colour band over its letters.
Only on higher levels. Easy words run left to right or top to bottom. Medium adds two diagonal directions. Hard allows all 8 directions, so words can also run right to left, bottom to top and up the diagonals. Either end can be selected first.
Yes. After the grid is filled, it is scanned in all 8 directions, and the puzzle is redrawn if a listed word shows up a second time or a blocklisted word appears in the filler or across words. No word in a puzzle is a part of another word in the same puzzle.
Yes. Press Daily for a 12 by 12 Medium puzzle seeded from your device's local date, such as 2026-10-15. Everyone with that date gets the same puzzle. Your win streak for dailies is kept in this browser.
They are the first short gloss of each word in WordNet 3.1 from Princeton University, shortened to 80 characters. Tap a word in the list to read one. A few read oddly for words with several meanings, and none contains its own answer.
No. The game is processed in your browser and nothing about your puzzle is uploaded. Found words, times and streaks are saved in this browser's storage for the last 12 puzzles. The only download is the word list of about 95 KB. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never your words.