Home › How to play › Word Search

How to play Word Search

The classic puzzle-book pastime, minus the paper and pen. A grid packed with letters, a list of words and the challenge of finding them all. It's the most relaxed mode in Wordarling — perfect for unwinding or playing with kids.

What it is

The grid is a square completely filled with letters. Hidden among them, always in straight lines, are the words from the list shown just below. The leftover letters are drawn according to how often each letter appears in the language — so the filler looks word-like and the real words blend in.

The rules, step by step

1. Read the list. The words to find sit below the grid, together with a counter of how many you've found.
2. Mark a word. Touch the first letter (or click it) and drag to the last without letting go. The selection snaps to the nearest straight line, so it doesn't have to be perfect.
3. Either end works. You can start from the first or the last letter of the word.
4. Check the result. A correct word gets a colour in the grid and is struck off the list. A wrong selection simply marks nothing — no penalty.
5. Find them all. When the last word on the list is marked, the level is done.

A single letter can belong to two crossing words. And if a word happens to appear twice in the grid, either one counts.

Directions by difficulty

Words also get longer at each level: four to six letters on Easy, up to nine on Expert.

A worked example

List: FROG, SUN, SEA. FROG has been found.

FROG runs diagonally: it starts at the F in the top corner and goes down to the G. To mark it, drag from F to G — or from G to F, either way. Your turn now: SUN hides in the top row, left to right. And SEA sits in the bottom row, starting at the very first letter. Notice that letters right next to each other often belong to different words — that's what makes the grid tricky.

Techniques for finding words faster

• Hunt the rare letter. Instead of looking for a word's first letter, look for its least common one. To find JACKET, hunt the J or the K: there are few of them.
• Look for pairs. Combinations such as TH, CK, QU, double letters (LL, SS, EE) jump out and narrow things down fast.
• Sweep in bands. Scan row by row, then column by column. On levels with diagonals, do a third pass just for them.
• Read backwards. From Hard upwards a word can be reversed: look for its last letter too.
• Start with long words. They take up more room and are easier to spot; short ones hide better.

Common mistakes

• Lifting your finger halfway: the selection has to run from one end to the other.
• Forgetting the level's directions. On Easy there's no point looking for diagonals; on Expert, a word can run any way at all.
• Stopping at the first look-alike letter. If that F doesn't continue into FROG in any direction, move on to the next F.

How the help works

Word Search has no Check — the grid itself confirms every find. The only help is Reveal, which marks one whole missing word at once. It is much scarcer than in other modes: signed in, you get one use per game (two with Premium), and no extra uses for coins. Save it for that last stubborn word.

Daily levels and playing with friends

Signed in, you get five new Word Search levels free every day (seven with Premium); after that each new level costs a few coins or an ad, and replays are always free. Word Search is the Wednesday daily challenge. In group play it works as a team — found words show up for everyone — and in Versus, where every marked word scores instantly for whoever is on turn.

FAQ