About Word Search

A grid of letters with a themed list of words hidden inside it. Words run in all eight directions — left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, and along both diagonals — so a word you cannot see forwards may be sitting there backwards. Drag across a word to claim it, or tap its first and last letter, and it lights up in the grid and is struck off the list.

There are eight themes: animals, food, space, nature, music, sport, travel and weather. Every word list is written for this site rather than pulled at random from a dictionary, because a word search is only pleasant when the words belong together and read well. Grids run from a gentle nine-by-nine with seven words up to a fifteen-by-fifteen holding sixteen, and words cross each other wherever the layout allows, which is what makes a grid feel woven rather than sprinkled.

The daily challenge gives everyone the same grid, with the theme changing each day of the week, and ranks the day by how quickly every word is found. A hint will show you where one of the words you have not found begins, and it is counted on the result so an honest clear still means something.

Tips to win

• Hunt for the unusual letters first: a J, Q, X or Z in the grid almost always belongs to a word on the list
• Scan one direction at a time — a full pass looking only for diagonals beats drifting over the grid hoping something jumps out
• Long words are the easiest to spot, and finding them opens up the crossings that give the short ones away
• If a word is hiding, try reading the grid backwards; that is where most of them are