How to make a word search
- Type a Title and your Words, one per line. Spaces and hyphens are left out of the grid, so “ice cream” is hidden as ICECREAM.
- Choose a Difficulty: Easy hides words across and down, Medium adds diagonals, Hard adds backwards words too. Leave Grid size empty for a size that fits, or type 8 to 30.
- Press Print, Download PDF or Download PNG. The answer key comes as a second page; New puzzle rearranges the words.
Making a good word search
- Pick a theme. Spelling lists, science vocabulary, names of the class, holiday words, a couple’s story for a wedding table. The title appears at the top of the page.
- Mix word lengths. Long words are easy to spot; short ones hide well. A mix keeps the puzzle interesting.
- Match difficulty to the solver. Words only going across and down are right for early readers. Diagonal and backwards words slow adults down considerably.
- Lowercase letters suit young children who are still learning capitals.
Printing and sharing
Print sends the puzzle and, if ticked, the answer key to your printer, sized for A4 or US Letter. Each page has its own title, the grid and a word list with tick boxes. Download PDF saves both pages in one file for printing later or sending to a class. Download PNG saves the page you’re looking at as an image, handy for a slide or a worksheet in another program.
Words are hidden in a different arrangement each time you press New puzzle, so you can print several versions of the same list for a group and stop people copying from each other.