How to play word search
A word search hides a list of real words inside a grid of decoy letters — your job is to find every one. The full find list sits beside the board from the start, so nothing is a guessing game: pick a word, hunt its letters, and cross it off. To select a word, drag from its first letter to its last; on a phone you can also tap the first letter and then the last, and the selection snaps to a straight line either way.
Difficulty changes which directions words can run. Easy boards keep every word reading left-to-right or top-to-bottom on a 10 × 10 grid. Medium boards move to 14 × 14 and add diagonal and reversed words, and hard boards use all eight directions on 16 × 16 — including backwards along the diagonals — with decoy letters tuned to resemble the hidden words.
When a word refuses to appear, a hint flashes its starting letter on the grid for a few seconds — hints are counted in your recap, never punished, so use them before frustration sets in. The quick-start steps and answers to common questions follow below; when you're ready, today's puzzle is waiting, or pick a themed grid from the puzzle library.