Word Search Strategy: 12 Tips to Find Words Faster

Nobody needs a strategy to enjoy a word search. You can wander around the grid with a cup of coffee and the words will turn up sooner or later. But if you have ever stared at a puzzle for five minutes hunting one last stubborn word, a few habits make a real difference. None of them are tricks. They are simply better ways of looking, and they work in a puzzle book as well as in our free online game.

Two Ways to Hunt

There are really only two methods, and good solvers switch between them.

• Word first. Pick one word from the list and go looking for it in the grid.
• Grid first. Run your eye along the grid and let words jump out, then check them against the list.

Grid first is pleasant and quick at the start, when the grid is full of unfound words. Word first is how you finish, when three or four are left and they are not jumping out at anybody. The tips below help with both.

Tips for Hunting One Word

1. Look for the rarest letter, not the first letter

Suppose the word is ZINNIA. You could look for every Z, or you could look for every I. There may be a dozen I's in the grid and only one or two Z's. Always hunt for the letter that is scarce. Q, Z, X, J, K, V and W are the best ones to chase. When you find one, check all around it for the letter that comes next in the word.

2. Look for double letters

Two of the same letter side by side stand out like a pair of headlights. WILLOW has LL, BREEZE has EE, POPPY has PP, BUTTER has TT. Scan for the pair rather than a single letter. On the Normal and Hard levels, remember that the pair may sit on a slant, one letter down and one over.

3. Look for a letter pair you know well

Some pairs of letters catch the eye because we see them so often: TH, CH, SH, QU, CK, ING. If the word is THIMBLE, your eye will find TH faster than it finds a lone T. If the word is QUILT, find the Q and the U is almost sure to be touching it.

4. Check all the neighbors

When you find a likely first letter, look at every square that touches it. On Easy that means only the one to the right and the one below. On Normal, add the two slanted squares on the right side. On Hard, check all eight squares around the letter. If the second letter of your word is not among them, move on to the next candidate without a second thought.

5. Say the word in pieces

Long words are easier to spot in chunks. Do not look for CHRYSANTHEMUM all at once. Look for "MUM" or "ANTH". For WATERMELON, look for "MELON". Once a chunk turns up, the rest is right beside it in the same line.

Tips for Sweeping the Grid

6. Go in order

A wandering eye covers the middle of the grid six times and the corners never. Instead, sweep on purpose: read every row from left to right, top to bottom. Then read every column from top to bottom. On an Easy puzzle, those two passes will find every single word, guaranteed, because words only run across and down.

7. Use a straightedge

In a puzzle book, people lay a ruler or an index card under the row they are reading. On a screen, the edge of an envelope held against the glass works just as well, or simply follow along with a fingertip held just off the screen. It keeps your eye on one line and stops it from sliding into the row below.

8. Hold three or four words in mind

As you sweep, do not look for one word. Look for the first letters of several. If the list has BEAGLE, BOXER and BULLDOG, every B is worth a pause. Themes help here: in a puzzle about dogs, your mind is already primed for dog words and will often catch one you were not even looking for.

9. Check the edges and corners

Words that run along the outside rows and columns are easy to miss, because we tend to look at the middle of any picture. Make one deliberate trip around the border of the grid. Long words in particular often end up against an edge, since that is where there is room for them.

Tips for the Harder Levels

10. For slanted words, sweep the diagonals

Diagonal words are hard because we never read that way in daily life. One method is to sweep the diagonals the same way you swept the rows: start in a corner and read each slanted line in turn. Another is to hunt by rare letter (tip 1) and then check the slanted neighbors first, since those are the ones you probably skipped.

11. For backwards words, hunt for the last letter

On Hard, a word may read right to left or bottom to top. Your eye, trained by a lifetime of reading, will slide straight past LEVOHS without seeing SHOVEL. Two things help. First, look for the word's last letters as if they were its first: for SHOVEL, look for "LEV". Second, do an extra sweep of each row from right to left. It feels odd for a minute and then it works.

12. Do the long words first

A ten-letter word in a ten-letter-wide grid can only sit in a few places. A three-letter word can be anywhere. Clear the long words early. Each one you mark puts a colored band across the grid, and those bands break the square into smaller areas that are easier to search. Short words like OWL, FIG and ELM are often the last to fall, so do not be discouraged when they are.

When You Are Down to the Last Word

Everybody gets stuck on the last one. Try these, in order:

1. Look where there are no bands. Words can cross, but the last word usually lives in a patch of the grid you have not marked anything in yet.
2. Count its letters and think about where it can fit. A nine-letter word cannot be on a slant near a corner.
3. Sweep one more time for its rarest letter. Touch every one in the grid and check its neighbors.
4. Look away for a moment. Glance out the window and come back. Fresh eyes find things tired eyes pass over. It is surprising how often the word is sitting right where you looked.
5. Press Hint. It rings the first letter and leaves the rest to you. That is not giving up. It is how you learn where your eye tends to skip.

Is a Word Search Good for You?

We will not make medical promises. What we can say is that a word search asks you to pay attention, hold a few words in mind and look carefully, and that many people find twenty quiet minutes of that a pleasant part of the day. It is also a comfortable puzzle to do alongside someone else: one person reads the list aloud, the other hunts. If you enjoy that kind of calm, careful looking, you may also like Mahjong Solitaire or one of our jigsaw puzzles.