Word Search

Eight words are hidden in the grid. They can run left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, and along either diagonal in both directions, so a word you cannot see forwards may well be sitting there backwards.

Tap the first letter of a word and then its last letter. The whole run lights up if you are right. Selecting a word backwards counts, because it is the same word.

The dated grid resets at midnight and everybody playing on the same day gets the same one, so you can compare without spoiling it. If you want more, the Another grid button builds a fresh one immediately. Drag across a word or tap its first and last letter, whichever you prefer.

Scan for the rare letters first. If a word on the list contains a J, Q, X or Z, find that letter in the grid and work outwards from it. There will usually be only one or two of them, which turns a search of a hundred cells into a search of two.

Read columns, not just rows. Most people sweep left to right because that is how reading works, then wonder why half the list is still unfound. Deliberately reading top to bottom down each column finds the vertical entries in one pass.

Look for the double letters. A word with LL, SS, EE or OO in it gives you a two-cell pattern that is much easier to spot than a single letter, and it fixes the direction immediately.

Do the diagonals last and on purpose. Diagonals are where the leftover words almost always are, because the eye does not naturally travel that way. Once the rows and columns are done, tilt your head or turn the screen.

Work from the word, not from the grid. Pick a word off the list, take its first two letters, and hunt for that pair. Hunting for a whole word at once is far slower than hunting for a pair.

The print button strips the site furniture and gives you the grid and the word list on a clean page. Useful for a classroom, a waiting room, or anyone who would rather do it with a pen.

Words already found stay unmarked in the printed version, so printing halfway through does not spoil the rest of it.