Pocket Games
Word Search
A grid of letters that look random, and twelve words hidden inside: across, down, diagonally, even written backwards. Word search is the puzzle from the back pages of holiday magazines, and that is the whole rule. The hard part is that your eye reads left to right, and the words don’t.
How to play
The grid has 9 columns and 12 rows. Twelve words are hidden in it, each written in one of eight directions: left to right or right to left, top to bottom or bottom to top, and along the four diagonals. Two words can cross if they share the same letter where they meet. The remaining squares are filled with random letters.
To mark a word, drag your finger from its first letter to its last: the selection snaps to the nearest direction, so your diagonal doesn’t have to be perfect. Or tap the first letter and then the last. Starting from the last letter works too: a word selected backwards still counts.
A found word stays circled, each in its own colour. The circle is only an outline, so the letters stay readable, including the ones another word needs. The game ends when you have found all twelve.
On Pocket Games
- Three difficulty levels, same grid: only what you know about the words changes. On Easy you see the full list and found words are crossed out; on Medium you see only the first letter and the length, like G _ _ _ _, and the whole word appears once you find it; on Hard you only see how many you have found.
- The words are common ones, four to nine letters long, in the app’s language: Italian, English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese, the same for Portugal and Brazil. Only the letters A to Z, no accents.
- One copy only. The filler letters follow the language’s letter frequencies, but the game checks that they never spell a second copy of a hidden word by accident. No word in the list is contained in another, either.
- The hint is the light bulb at the top: it lights up the first letter of a random word you haven’t found yet. The first one each game is free; in the app you get more by watching a video, in the browser there is only that one.
- Your record is your best time, one for each difficulty. With a Google account it carries over to your other device.
- An unfinished game is saved with the words found, the time and the hints, and Continue picks it up from there.
- On a computer you play with the mouse: drag, or click the first and the last letter.
How to find the words
Look for rare letters. Vowels are everywhere in the grid, but a Z, a Q or a double consonant is rare: if the word you want has one, start there and check the eight squares around it.
Scan rows, then columns, then diagonals. Reading the grid at random wastes time. One pass per direction, looking for the word’s first two letters, is slower at first and much faster by the end.
Remember backwards. A good share of the words run right to left or bottom to top. If a word won’t show up, look for it starting from its last letter.
Use the crossings. A letter that is already circled can belong to another word, so the squares next to found words are a good place to look.
On Hard, start with the long ones. With no list you are looking for words you don’t know: a run of eight or nine letters that reads like a word is easier to spot than a four-letter one, and leaves fewer squares to get lost in.
Frequently asked questions
Are the grids made by hand?
No: every game is generated on the spot, with the vocabulary of the app’s language. All difficulty levels use the same 9 by 12 grid and the same number of words.
Can a word appear twice?
No. After filling the grid the game looks for every word in every direction, and if the random letters have formed a second copy it changes them. That is why each word is in exactly one place.
Do other words I find in the grid count?
No: only the twelve hidden words count. A real word that happens to form among the filler letters is not marked.
Does the hint cost time?
No, the timer doesn’t change. The hint only tells you where a word starts: you still have to find which way it goes.
Can I lose?
No, there are no mistakes and no time limit: a wrong selection costs nothing. The timer is only there for your record.
More games to try
See the full list of games, or open Pocket Games in your browser: they are free and you don’t need an account.