Word Search

How to play word search

1. Every word on the list is hidden in the grid in a straight line. Press on its first letter, drag along the word, and let go — the stroke snaps straight, like a ruler under your marker.
2. Directions grow with difficulty: Easy (8×8) reads only rightwards and downwards, Medium (10×10) adds diagonals, and Hard (12×12) hides words backwards too. Dragging either way along a word always counts.
3. Each found word keeps its own highlighter color on the page and gets struck off the list below.
4. Stuck? The hint button briefly lights up the first letter of a word you haven't found — but best times only count for unhinted runs.
5. Pick a themed page at your size, with your best clean time saved per difficulty — or play the shared Daily and build a streak.

A little background

The word search is younger than it feels: Norman E. Gibat printed the first one in the Selenby Digest, a little classified ads bulletin in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1968 — teachers asked for reprints, and the puzzle photocopied its way into every classroom, waiting room, and activity book on earth. Spain tells a parallel story with Pedro Ocón de Oro's "sopa de letras" (letter soup). Nobody ever owned the name, which is why every puzzle page gets to call it what it is.

This version keeps the activity-book feel — printed capitals on cream paper, translucent marker strokes that stay where you drew them, even the squeak of the felt tip — and adds what print never could: every puzzle is built by placing the words first, so the list is never wrong; the daily page is the same for every player everywhere; and the word lists are hand-picked and kid-safe. Free, no ads, works offline once loaded.