The languages coders use
Computers are programmed using special languages, and this word search gathers many of them. You'll be finding hugely popular ones like PYTHON, JAVA and JAVASCRIPT's cousin TYPESCRIPT, the app-building SWIFT and KOTLIN, and the web favourite RUBY.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the line-up changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a longer-word challenge once the diagonals and backwards words appear on Hard.
From classics to modern code
Programming languages have been invented for over 70 years, and the words are here. There are the old classics COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL and BASIC, the low-level ASSEMBLY language, and modern names like RUST, SCALA, DART, JULIA, CLOJURE and HASKELL. You'll also spot LUA, PERL, ERLANG, GROOVY and the maths-friendly MATLAB. We use the language names just as coders write them, so you can match each one as you go.
Why so many languages?
It seems odd to have hundreds of programming languages when human languages already feel like plenty — but each was built for a different job, a bit like a workshop full of different tools. PYTHON is prized for being clear and beginner-friendly and now powers much of artificial intelligence; SWIFT was made by Apple for iPhone apps and KOTLIN for Android; FORTRAN, born in 1957, still crunches numbers for weather forecasts; and the maths-friendly MATLAB and JULIA are favourites of scientists. Underneath them all, ASSEMBLY talks to the machine in its most basic terms.
The names themselves are full of stories. PYTHON wasn't named after the snake at all, but after the British comedy team Monty Python; JAVA was named after a cup of coffee, which is why its logo is a steaming mug; and the old COBOL still quietly runs many of the world's banks decades later. Whichever a coder picks, the computer turns it into the same 1s and 0s in the end — making this a fun fit for a computing or coding-club topic.
Great for a coding club
It's a great fit for a computing or coding-club lesson — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to build a grid from your own favourite languages.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Programming Languages word search?
Languages used to program computers — popular ones like Python, Java, Swift, Kotlin and Ruby, classics like Cobol, Fortran, Pascal and Basic, and others such as Rust, Scala, Haskell, Lua and TypeScript. Each puzzle uses a fresh mix.
Which languages can you find?
Hugely popular ones like PYTHON, JAVA, SWIFT, KOTLIN and RUBY, classics like COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL and BASIC, the low-level ASSEMBLY, plus RUST, SCALA, HASKELL, LUA, DART and TYPESCRIPT.
Is it good for a coding club?
Great fit for a computing or coding-club lesson. Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words.