Word Search Tips: 8 Ways to Find Words Faster
Most people solve a word search the slow way: read the first word on the list, sweep the grid row by row until it turns up, repeat. It works, and it takes forever. If you play against the clock or against another person, you need a method. These eight strategies are the ones that actually save time, whether you solve on paper or online.
The short version: look for rare letters and double letters instead of whole words, work from the edges in, search for several words at once, and turn the page.
1. Read the word list first
Spend ten seconds on the list before you touch the grid. Note the long words, the words with unusual letters, and pairs that share a start, such as “night” and “nighttime”. You will spot those without trying once you know they exist.
Keep checking the list as you go. It tells you what is left, and it stops you circling a word that happens to be in the grid but was never on the list.
2. Hunt letters, not words
The grid is full of vowels and common consonants. Q, Z, X, J and K are rare in English text, so a Q in the grid almost always belongs to a word from the list. Find the rare letter, then look in all eight directions from it.
A Q without a U next to it can be ignored. Nearly every English word that has one has the other.
3. Double letters are a flag
“LL”, “EE”, “OO”, “SS” and “TT” stand out in a block of random letters, and random filler letters produce far fewer pairs than real words do. When you see a pair, check the list for a word that contains it and read outward from the pair in every direction.
4. Search for several words at once
Once you know the list, hold three or four words in mind and sweep the grid once, rather than sweeping it once per word. Grouping words by first letter helps: every time you pass an S, you check for all the S words.
5. Work the edges and corners
Long words have fewer places to fit, and full-length rows and columns are among them. Scan the top and bottom rows and the left and right columns for the longest words on the list first, then move inward.
6. Start with the longest words
It feels backwards, but long words are easier to confirm. Find the first two letters in the right order and the rest of the word either follows or it does not. Short words produce far more false starts. Clear the long ones early and the grid gets emptier for the rest.
7. Read in every direction
Words run forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals. Backward words are the ones people miss, because the eye reads left to right. Practice scanning a row from right to left, and try reading the diagonals as if they were rows.
8. Turn the puzzle
When you are stuck, rotate the sheet a quarter turn, or tilt your head at the screen. A vertical word becomes a horizontal one and the grid looks new. Step back, too: words often sit right next to words you already found, crossing them or running parallel.
Playing online
The same tricks work in the online game, where you drag across a word to mark it. Two things change. First, you cannot cross words off with a pen, so glance at the list more often. Second, in a battle the other player is clearing the same grid, so go for the rare-letter words first: they are the ones your opponent is least likely to find quickly.
Where the word search came from
The word search is younger than the crossword. The first one usually credited appeared in 1968 in the Selenby Digest, a small paper in Norman, Oklahoma, made by Norman E. Gibat. It spread through schools and newspapers and has been a classroom staple ever since.
Practice on any of our printable puzzles, or pick a topic and play online.