How to play Word search
A word search with no list beside it sounds harder than the usual kind, and for the first minute it is. Then it turns out to be a different game: instead of hunting for words somebody told you about, you read the grid for words — and the board has made sure that every five-letter word you can read in it is one it hid.
This page is about reading the grid well. Five short lessons, each acted out on a small board you can step through at your own pace — the same kind of board as the day’s, six letters a side instead of seven.
How to play
Every word hidden in the grid has five letters. Words run along rows, columns and diagonals, and may cross. About a third of them read backwards.
There is no list. The board says how many words there are, and every five-letter word you can read in it, either way round, is one of them.
When every word is crossed out, five letters are left. Read row by row, they spell the hidden word.
Drag across a word from either end, or tap the letters at its two ends. A small arrow on its ring shows which way it reads.
About a third of the words on a board read backwards: right to left, upwards, or up a diagonal. Once a word is found, the small arrow on its ring shows which way it reads. The board never uses a word twice, and never lets two words overlap in the same row, column or diagonal. A line that is not a word costs nothing but the moment it takes to shake — the finish card mentions misses only when there were three or fewer. And a grid left half-done waits for you until the day turns.
Start from a letter there is only one of
Most letters turn up again and again, and the eye slides over them. A letter the grid has only one of is a handhold: a word through it can lie on only four lines — its row, its column and its two diagonals, each read both ways — so it is quick to find.
Read the diagonals on purpose
The eye reads rows without being asked and columns when it has to, and it skips diagonals. That makes the diagonals the best hiding place on the board, so give them a pass of their own, each one from both ends.
Read every line both ways
About a third of the words read backwards. The eye reads a line once, as it would a page, and moves on; reading it again from the far end is a second look it has to be told to take — and one that pays off on every board.
A ringed letter is still in play
Words cross, so a letter inside a ring may well be the start, the middle or the end of another word. On a board this full most words share a letter or two, and the word that seems to be missing often runs through letters already ringed.
Let the letters left over find the last word
Every letter on the board belongs to a word, except the five that spell the hidden word. Near the end, that turns the letters without a ring into a map: each of them is either part of a word still out there or part of the hidden word.
No timer. Leave and come back — it’s saved.
Play today’s word search