Word Search by Big T

Press on the first letter and drag to the last one, then let go.

The trail highlights as you drag. If the letters spell a word from the list, it stays marked and the word is struck through.

Up to eight directions, and which ones depends on the difficulty.

Easy runs every word forwards — left to right, top to bottom, or diagonally down-right. From Medium on, all eight directions are in play, including backwards and upwards. Backwards and diagonal entries are the ones people miss, so if a word will not turn up, try reading the grid in reverse.

The puzzle is done when every word on the list is struck through.

Every word to find, struck through as you find it.

It sits beside the board in landscape and above or below it in portrait — see Layout.

Some puzzles name a theme under the difficulty.

A theme just tells you what the words have in common. Puzzles drawn from the general dictionary show no theme.

A long word is easier to find than a short one, not harder.

A nine-letter word barely fits in the grid — there are only a handful of places it can start and still have room to finish, and it has to run in a straight line the whole way. A four-letter word can hide almost anywhere. Take the longest entries on the list first and the grid empties faster.

Scan for the least common letter in the word rather than starting at its beginning.

For QUARTZ, sweep for Q or Z. There may be two of them in the whole grid, against a dozen or more of any vowel. Starting at the first letter is the habit most people have and it is usually the slowest way in, because common opening letters are everywhere.

Read a word off the list and look for it. Do not stare at the grid hoping one surfaces.

Free-scanning feels productive and finds almost nothing, because you are matching against twelve targets at once. One word at a time, with its rare letter in mind, is a far narrower thing for your eye to do.

Diagonals are the entries people leave until last, so do them on purpose.

Rows and columns get read naturally; diagonals do not. When a word resists, run your eye along the diagonals as a separate pass rather than hoping to notice one. From Medium on, remember it may also be running backwards.

Check whether you are reading it in reverse, then move on and come back.

Found words stay marked, so every one you find shrinks the space the rest can hide in. Coming back to a stubborn word after clearing three others is usually quicker than grinding on it.

Easy 8×8 with 6 words, Medium 10×10 with 8, Hard 12×12 with 10, Expert 15×15 with 12.

The grid grows faster than the list does: Expert has twice Easy's words but nearly four times the area to hide them in.

Easy uses three forward directions; every other difficulty uses all eight.

That single change is the biggest step in the game, and it lands between Easy and Medium — a grid you could read like a page suddenly needs sweeping in every direction.

Average word length climbs from about five letters at Easy to nearly nine at Expert.

Longer words are individually easier to spot, which sounds backwards for a difficulty ladder. It is the grid area and the list length that carry the difficulty; the longer words keep an Expert puzzle from becoming a hunt for scattered three-letter fragments.

Show or hide the solve timer.

Switch between light and dark, and pick a colour theme.

Landscape only. Puts the word list under your dominant hand.

Portrait only. Brings the board into easier thumb reach.