Choose a theme and a word list
The best word searches have a theme: this week’s spelling words, science vocabulary, characters from a class book, family names for a party. Themed words make the puzzle feel meaningful and give solvers a reason to read the list carefully.
Mix word lengths. Long words are easy to spot once found and give a quick win; short words hide well and make the puzzle last. Avoid words that appear inside other words in the list, such as “car” and “card”, unless you want an extra challenge.
Grid size
| Solver | Grid | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Young children | 8 × 8 to 10 × 10 | 6–10 |
| Older children | 12 × 12 | 10–14 |
| Adults | 15 × 15 | 12–18 |
| Experts | 20 × 20 | 20+ |
Larger grids mean smaller letters, so use the large-print maker for anyone who needs big letters.
How many words fit?
Words compete for space, and crossing only works where letters match. We ran our maker on a list of 20 words of four to eight letters, twenty times for each grid size and difficulty:
| Grid | Easy | Medium | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 8 | 8.3 of 20 · 87% word letters | 8.5 of 20 · 85% word letters | 8.7 of 20 · 86% word letters |
| 10 × 10 | 13.1 of 20 · 82% word letters | 12.7 of 20 · 78% word letters | 12.8 of 20 · 79% word letters |
| 12 × 12 | 18.8 of 20 · 78% word letters | 18.4 of 20 · 76% word letters | 18.2 of 20 · 74% word letters |
| 15 × 15 | 20.0 of 20 · 53% word letters | 20.0 of 20 · 53% word letters | 20.0 of 20 · 53% word letters |
| 20 × 20 | 20.0 of 20 · 30% word letters | 20.0 of 20 · 30% word letters | 20.0 of 20 · 30% word letters |
Our word search maker run on 20 landform words (4 to 8 letters long), averaged over 20 puzzle numbers for each grid and level. Words that cannot be placed are left off the printed list, so every puzzle stays solvable.
Two things follow. A 10 × 10 grid comfortably holds about a dozen words, and a 15 × 15 grid holds 20 with room to spare. Difficulty barely changes how many fit; it changes how hard they are to find. If the maker reports fewer words placed than you typed, enlarge the grid or trim the list.
Difficulty
The maker has three levels:
- Easy: words run only left to right and top to bottom.
- Medium: diagonals are added.
- Hard: words can also run backwards, in all eight directions.
Children are usually happiest with easy puzzles; see the kids’ word search. Adults who solve often enjoy hard puzzles.
Here is a real medium puzzle from the maker, with its answer page:
- Puzzle12 × 12, medium
- Answer pagewords highlighted
A tip for fair puzzles
The maker fills the empty squares with common letters and never uses Q, V, X or Z as filler. That keeps the grid readable, but it means a word containing one of those letters is easier to spot, because that letter appears only inside words. For a harder puzzle, avoid words built around a rare letter.
In the classroom
- Use spelling lists, so finding a word reinforces how it is spelled.
- Ask students to use each word they find in a sentence.
- Give each table a different puzzle number to prevent copying.
- Let students make puzzles for each other from their own word lists.
Writing the word list
Check the spelling of every word before generating the puzzle, since a typo is hard to find once the grid is printed. Keep words to letters only: spaces and punctuation are removed, so “ice cream” becomes ICECREAM in the grid. Words longer than the grid width cannot be placed, so shorten them or choose a larger grid.
Think about the solvers too. For young readers, choose words they can already read, and consider the large-print maker so letters are easy to track with a finger. For older solvers, add a few longer words that contain shorter ones, which makes the search more interesting.
Variations
- Clue list: fold back or cover the printed word list and read definitions aloud; solvers work out each word before finding it.
- Picture clues: for pre-readers, show a picture for each word and let them search for its first letter.
- Team race: give pairs the same puzzle number and see who finds every word first.
Printing
Print at 100% / Actual size. Add the answer page for teachers and print it separately so it is not handed out with the puzzle.