How to Play Word Search — Beginner's Guide

Word Search is a relaxing word-hunting game loved around the world: inside a grid full of letters, English words are "hiding" waiting for you to spot them. It trains your eyes, your memory, and your vocabulary.

The Basic Rules

• The target words hide in the grid in straight lines, in up to 8 directions: left-to-right and right-to-left, top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top, and 4 diagonals.
• To find a word, drag across its letters (or swipe with your finger), or tap its first letter then its last letter.
• Each correctly found word is struck off the target word list.
• Find every word on the list to complete the grid.

Levels and Game Modes

Our Word Search has 12 difficulty levels:

• Grids grow from 8×8 up to 12×12.
• The word count rises from 6 to 15 words.
• Higher levels unlock more hiding directions.

Solo play is timed, there is a daily challenge with a fresh grid every day, and race rooms where 2–4 players hunt on the same grid — whoever finds more words, faster, wins.

Tips for Beginners

Start with rare letters: words beginning with Q, X, Z, J, or K are usually easiest to spot because they have few "lookalikes".

Scan row by row in both directions (left to right, then right to left) before hunting for diagonals.

Use the word list: a word's length tells you where it can fit — long words usually run horizontally or vertically.

Search systematically: work evenly through each row and column instead of darting your eyes around the grid.

You can play Word Search right here — start at level 1 and gradually unlock bigger grids with more hiding directions!