How we make our word searches

We think a puzzle site should be happy to show its working, so here is exactly how every word search on this site is made, checked, and kept honest — from the moment a topic is chosen to the moment you find the last word.

1. We start with a hand-picked word list

Every puzzle begins with a list of real words for a real topic — the dog breeds for a Dogs puzzle, the planets for a Space puzzle, the ingredients for a Baking puzzle. We choose these lists by hand so the words genuinely belong together, and we keep most of them short enough to be findable on the easier grids. Off-topic filler words are never added just to pad a list out.

2. An automatic generator builds the grid

The grid itself is built by our own word search engine, written from scratch. It places the longest words first so everything packs together neatly, hides each word along a valid straight line, and then fills the leftover squares with random letters. Accented letters are simplified to their base letter (so é becomes E and ñ becomes N) and everything is shown in clear capitals, which keeps the hunt fair and readable.

The engine is deterministic: feed it the same topic and the same starting number and it produces exactly the same grid, every time. That sounds like a technical detail, but it is what powers a few things you can actually rely on — most importantly, the daily puzzle.

3. How we keep puzzles fair and solvable

A word search only "works" if every word you are asked to find is really in there. So before any random letters are sprinkled in, the engine places every word on the list into the grid, and it removes accidental duplicates so no word is ever listed twice. If a word is too long for the grid or simply will not fit, it is flagged rather than silently dropped — we would rather fix the list than ship a puzzle you cannot finish.

There is no guessing and there are no trick letters: every answer is a normal word printed right there on the list. Our Detective puzzles go a step further still — that engine rejects any grid where a listed word could be found in more than one place, so the mystery always has a single clean solution.

4. How difficulty is decided

Our Easy, Medium, and Hard labels are not guesswork — each one changes concrete settings in the generator:

• Easy uses a smaller grid and hides words only across and down — no diagonals, no backwards words. Great for younger players and classrooms.
• Medium grows the grid and adds diagonal directions, so your eyes have to work in more directions.
• Hard goes bigger again and allows words to run backwards as well, which is where a quick hunt turns into a proper challenge.

Because the difficulty comes from the grid size and the allowed directions rather than a vague label, a Hard puzzle is genuinely harder than an Easy one — consistently, every time.

5. The daily puzzle is the same for everyone

Our Daily Word Search is seeded from the date, which means every player gets the identical grid on the same day. You can compare times with a friend fairly, because nobody gets an easier shuffle than anybody else.

6. The people behind the puzzles

The site and its puzzle engine are built by Brian Hamilton, a puzzle site creator and web developer with 30 years of experience building games, solvers, and generators. Karan Hamilton helps shape the word lists, wording, difficulty, and overall player experience, so the puzzles read clearly and play well for everyone from a classroom of six-year-olds to a serious puzzler on the train. The topic write-ups are researched and written in-house and checked for accuracy before they go live.

7. Spotted a mistake? Tell us

We are a small team and we read every message. If a word looks wrong, a list could be better, or you have a topic you would love to see, please tell us through the contact page. Because our puzzles are generated from shared word lists, a single correction improves that topic everywhere it appears — so your report genuinely makes the site better for the next person.

Common questions