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Word search generator

Paste a word list. Pick how big the grid is and which way the words can run. You get a puzzle to print and an answer key on its own page.

How to use it

1. Paste your words — one per line, or separated by spaces or commas. A spelling list, the names of everyone at the party, the vocabulary from this week's topic. Or press a theme to start from one of ours and edit it.
2. Pick the grid size. Bigger grids are harder, because there is more filler between the answers. A ten-by-ten is a children's puzzle; a sixteen keeps an adult busy.
3. Choose which way the words run. Across and down only is the gentlest setting. Adding diagonals roughly doubles the search. Adding backwards makes it properly hard.
4. Print it. The answer key prints on its own page unless you say otherwise, so you can hand out the puzzle without handing out the answers.

The puzzle updates as you type. There is no Generate button because there is nothing to wait for — the grid is built in your browser.

What happens to words that do not fit

Nothing is ever dropped quietly. If a word is longer than the grid, is already inside another word on your list, or simply cannot be placed, the page says so in plain words above the puzzle and tells you what to change. If your list needs a bigger grid than the one you picked, it grows the grid and tells you it did — because the alternative is a word list that promises eight words over a grid that only holds six, and you find that out at the kitchen table.

A word that is inside another word is the one people are surprised by. If your list has both RAT and CRATE, the letters of CRATE already spell RAT, so RAT could be found in two places and the answer key would be wrong about one of them. Only the longer word is hidden, and the page tells you which one it kept.

Making it as hard, or as easy, as you want

The grid size is the main dial

The same eight words in a ten-by-ten and in an eighteen-by-eighteen are two completely different puzzles. The words are no better hidden in the bigger grid — there is simply more paper to search.

Directions are the second dial

Across and down is two directions to check. Adding diagonals makes it four. Ticking backwards doubles whatever you have, because now every line has to be read both ways. For young children, leave backwards off: reading right-to-left is a skill they are still building and it turns a pleasant puzzle into a chore.

Long words are easier than short ones

This is the one that catches people out. A ten-letter word is a long unbroken run of letters and the eye finds it quickly. Five four-letter words are much harder to spot than one twenty-letter one. If your puzzle feels too easy, shorten the words rather than growing the grid.

Printing it

The answer key gets its own page by default. That is the setting people actually want and almost no free generator does it — an answer key printed underneath the puzzle is not an answer key, it is a spoiler. You can move it under the puzzle or switch it off entirely.

Large print makes the grid squares and the word list genuinely bigger, not just the heading. It is there because a word search is one of the puzzles that gets handed round care homes and hospital wards most, and a standard grid is unreadable to a lot of the people it gets handed to. There are ready-made large-print puzzles here too.

It costs almost no ink. The grid is letters on white paper with hairline rules; there are no dark blocks anywhere on the sheet. The answer key marks the solved letters with a pale tint rather than a black highlight, for the same reason.

What people make with these

Spelling and vocabulary lists. The same words the class already has, in a form that requires actually looking at the letters rather than recognising a shape.

Names. A word search of everyone's name is a good ice-breaker and takes one minute to make. Long names hide better than short ones.

Parties and weddings. A themed grid on the back of a place card or an order of service keeps people busy before things start.

Care homes, wards and waiting rooms. Large print, gentle settings, a familiar theme. This is what the large-print version of this tool is actually for.

Revision. Key terms from a topic, printed the morning of the test.

Common questions

How many words should I use?

Eight to twelve is the comfortable range for a twelve-by-twelve grid. Fewer than about five and the grid is mostly filler; more than about fifteen and the words start crossing each other so often that the grid looks like alphabet soup. You can use up to twenty-four, and the page will grow the grid to hold them.

Can two words cross each other?

Yes, and they usually do — that is what makes a word search a grid rather than a list. Every word is still findable exactly once, which the generator checks before it shows you anything: it scans all eight readings of every row, column and diagonal and rebuilds the filler if any word turns up twice by accident.

Will the same word list always give the same puzzle?

Yes, as long as the settings match. The grid is built from your words rather than from a random number that changes every second, so a sheet you print today and the same list typed next month give you the same puzzle. That is deliberate: it means you can rebuild a sheet you have lost.

Can I use names, or words with accents?

Names are fine. Accented letters and punctuation are stripped down to plain A to Z, because a grid square holds one letter and there is no square for an accent — so CAFÉ is hidden as CAFE. Two-word entries are split into their two words for the same reason.

Is anything I type sent to a server?

No. The grid is built in your browser and stays there. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is logged, and the page keeps working with your network disconnected once it has loaded.

Is it free?

Yes, with no account, no limit and no catch. There is no watermark on the printout and no "upgrade to remove the advert", because there is no advert.

There is a daily version of this

If you would rather solve one than make one, the Wise Word Finder is a new word search every morning, built around a quote with its words missing — so you can work backwards from the passage as well as forwards from the grid. It uses the same grid builder this page does. It is free, there is no sign-up, and it takes about three minutes.