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Types of word search

A word search is a grid of letters with words hidden in it, and that part never changes. What you are given to find them with does, and that makes six different puzzles.

The grid stays the same; the clue changes

Every puzzle on this site hides its words the same way: in straight lines across, down and diagonally, and backwards too on Hard. What changes from one type to the next is the panel beside the grid, which is where the clue lives. Give the player the words and it is a classic. Give them less, or something to work out first, and it becomes another game on the same grid.

Type What you are given What you have to do first Where to play it
Classic The words Nothing. Find them. Every topic page, the daily puzzle, printable packs
Clueless A theme, and the length of each word Think of the words The Clueless page, or Mode on any topic page
Jumble The words, with their letters scrambled Unscramble them, or spot their letters in the grid The Jumble page, or Mode on any topic page
Missing Vowels The words, with every vowel a blank Fill the vowels in, or spot the consonants in the grid The Missing Vowels page, or Mode on any topic page
Secret Code The words in cipher, and the decoder Decode each word, or a letter or two of it The Secret Code page, or Mode on any topic page
Detective The words, one of which is not in the grid Find the rest, then solve the case the leftover letters spell The Detective page

Mode is the picker above the puzzle on every topic page.

Four of these are not places you have to go and find. Clueless, Jumble, Missing Vowels and Secret Code are a switch: open any topic on the site and the Mode picker above the grid turns that puzzle into one, with the same words. Their own pages exist for when you don't mind which topic you get and want the site to deal you one.

Classic: the one you know

  • Apple
  • Grapefruit
  • Kiwi
The list says what to find. A found word is struck through in its own colour, which also marks it in the grid.

You are given the words and the grid, and the puzzle is the looking. On Easy the grid is 10 by 10 with 7 words running across and down; on Hard it is 16 by 16 with 14, in all eight directions. Every topic page plays this way until you change the mode, the daily puzzle is one of these that everyone gets the same, and the printable packs and Make Your Own build them on paper.

Clueless: no list, just a theme

  • B (5)
  • C (5)
  • Y (6)
Theme: Colours. Each row is one hidden word, its length in brackets. Easy gives you the first letter; Medium and Hard give you the blanks alone.

The word list is taken away. You get the theme and a row of blanks per word, so before you can look for a word you have to think of it, which is a different kind of effort from spotting it on a list. The theme sets the difficulty more than the grid does: a week has seven days, but the United Nations has 193 members. A Letter button writes in the next letter of a word when you are stuck. Play it on the Clueless page, where every puzzle is a random topic, or switch any topic to it, such as dogs.

Jumble: the list is scrambled

  • AAANNB
  • AEPR
  • ENECRATIN
Theme: Fruit. Every word is on the list with its letters in the wrong order. Finding it in the grid spells it out.

Every word is there, shuffled. NOIL for LION. You can unscramble it in your head, or let the grid do it: the grid spells every word correctly, so a scramble with a Q or a Z in it tells you exactly which letter to hunt for. A typical word on this site has 720 ways to arrange its letters, so nobody solves these by trying every order; you read for patterns, and an Unjumble button spells one out when a word won't give. Play it on the Jumble page, or switch a topic to it, such as fruit.

Missing Vowels: the consonants are there

  • BLL
  • CW
  • CHCKN
Theme: Farm animals. Every consonant is given and every vowel is a blank. Y counts as a consonant, so a word like LYNX would show in full.

Take the vowels out of a word and most of it survives: SH _ _ P can hardly be anything but SHEEP. Hebrew and Arabic are written this way as a matter of course, consonants on the page and most vowels left for the reader to supply, and a well-known quiz round runs on the same trick. Here the list loses its vowels and the grid keeps them, so you can fill a word in from memory or find its consonants in the grid and read the rest off. A Vowel button fills one in when a row has you stuck. Play it on the Missing Vowels page, or switch a topic to it, such as farm animals.

Secret Code: the list is in cipher

Decoder A-003 Shift each coded letter forward by 3 (A→B is +1).

A → D B → E C → F D → G E → H F → I G → J H → K I → L J → M K → N L → O M → P N → Q O → R P → S Q → T R → U S → V T → W U → X V → Y W → Z X → A Y → B Z → C
  • BZIFMPB
  • DOXSFQV
  • GRMFQBO
Theme: Space. The whole list is written with one cipher, and the decoder above it turns every coded letter back. Easy uses a small shift like this one; Hard uses a keyword alphabet.

The list is still there, but in code. On Easy every letter has been shifted along the alphabet by one, two or three places, the trick Julius Caesar is said to have used for his letters; Medium mirrors the alphabet or shifts it further; Hard scrambles it with a keyword. The decoder is always shown, so the work is reading it: decode a whole word, or decode its first two letters and go looking for them in the grid, where the word is spelled plain. A Decode button does one word for you. Play it on the Secret Code page, or switch a topic to it, such as Ancient Rome.

Detective: find the words, then solve the case

N
E
X
C
U
R
A
T
O
R
T
T
O
R
M
A
R
B
L
E
F
T
G
O
H
E
E
R
O
L
R
O
W
W
C
S
F
T
E
U
A
M
E
N
O
T
R
R
M
C
M
O
N
D
N
E
N
A
A
I
E
S
V
E
R
L
O
C
T
A
E
A
E
A
A
L
A
E
E
R
T
I
R
N
D
E
H
P
O
E
C
C
A
S
K
E
T
C
H
S
A solved case. Every listed word is crossed off, and the letters left over, read left to right and top to bottom, spell the location (next to the roof terrace) and then a coded word.

A word search with a mystery wrapped round it. One name on the list is missing from the grid, and that is the culprit. Once every other word is crossed off, the letters nobody used are not random filler: read in order they give the scene of the crime and a coded word, and the case's decoder turns the code into the evidence. Easy cases use a word written backwards or a small letter shift; Hard ones a keyword cipher. It only lives on the Detective page, with its own cases rather than the site's topics.

Which one to pick

For a class, choose by what you want practised. A vocabulary list that has just been taught suits Clueless, where the children have to produce the words; a spelling list suits Jumble or Missing Vowels; a settling activity with a payoff suits Detective. Every type prints: the Clueless pack has blanks to write on and the Jumble pack a scrambled list, both with the words on the answer key. To start from a topic rather than a type, the topics directory lists all 476.