A word search maker for your own word list
This generator turns a list of words into a classic word search: a square of letters in which every word hides in a straight line. You choose the title, the words, the grid size from 8 × 8 to 25 × 25 and how hard it should be. The puzzle appears on the page right away, with the word list underneath. Show answers marks every word in the grid, and the PDF holds two pages, the puzzle and the answer key. Nothing is uploaded; the puzzle is built in your browser.
The seed is what makes a puzzle repeatable. The same words, settings and seed always produce the same grid, so you can rebuild a puzzle later or send the settings to a colleague. Press New puzzle for a fresh layout with a new seed.
Word searches for kids and for adults
There is no single right size. The suggestions below are our own starting points from making these puzzles, not research findings, so adjust them to the people who will solve them.
| Who | Grid | Words | Settings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young readers | 8 × 8 to 10 × 10 | 6 to 10 short words | Easy, ABC, fill A to Z |
| Older kids | 12 × 12 to 15 × 15 | 10 to 20 words | Medium |
| Teens and adults | 15 × 15 to 25 × 25 | 20 to 40 words | Hard, fill from the words |
For children who are still learning to read, keep the words short and the letters capital, since that matches the word list exactly. Easy only runs words left to right and top to bottom, the way they read. For a real challenge, pick Hard and fill letters from the words: the grid then fills up with the same letters your words use, so there are many false starts and no odd letters that give a word away. A theme helps at any age, such as fruit, a holiday, a book the class just read or the names at a party.
Word searches in class
Teachers use word searches for vocabulary, spelling lists and topic words. Print the puzzle for the class and the answer key page for yourself. Note the seed, and you can make the same puzzle again next year or on another computer from the same word list. Pick abc if your students read small letters more easily. To plan the lesson around it, the lesson plan template is free to print. For a review game with the same word list, the bingo card generator makes custom bingo cards from your words.
How the words are placed
Each word is cleaned first. Spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are left out of the grid, so ICE CREAM becomes ICECREAM in the grid and stays ICE CREAM in the list. Accented letters lose their accent and the tool tells you which words changed. Words with digits or letters outside A to Z are left out and listed, and so are duplicates and words shorter than 3 letters.
The placement starts with the longest word, because long words are the hardest to fit. For each word the program tries every start cell and every allowed direction in an order that the seed decides. A spot works when the word stays inside the grid and every letter either lands on an empty cell or on the same letter of a word already placed, which is how words cross. When a word finds no spot, the program goes back, moves the previous word and tries again. This search has a fixed limit of attempts; when it is used up, the words are placed one by one and those without room are listed under the puzzle. With Auto, the grid then grows by one row and column and the search starts over.
| Difficulty | Directions |
|---|---|
| Easy | Right, down |
| Medium | Right, down, down and right, up and right |
| Hard | All eight: the four above plus left, up, up and left, down and left |
The empty cells are then filled with random letters, either from A to Z or from your own words in the proportions they occur there. Random letters can spell a listed word a second time by chance. The generator checks every word in all eight directions and changes a fill letter wherever that happens, so each word is in the grid once. Words that are each other's reverse, such as STAR and RATS, are the exception: every copy of one is also the other read backwards, so each of them can be found twice. The same goes for a short word inside a longer one, such as CAT in CATALOG.
Printing and the PDF
Download PDF saves one file with the puzzle on the first page and the answer key on the second, on US Letter or A4 paper. The letters are drawn as text, so they stay sharp at any zoom. Print sends the same two pages to your printer from the browser; pick the paper there. On a phone the grid shrinks to fit the screen, which makes a 25 × 25 grid hard to read, so print or open the PDF for large puzzles.
How to use the word search generator
- 1Type a title and your words, one per line or separated by commas.
- 2Pick the grid size or Auto, the difficulty, capital or small letters and the fill letters.
- 3Check the notes for words that changed or did not fit. Press New puzzle for another layout.
- 4Print the puzzle or download the PDF with the answer key. Copy link saves the settings and the seed.
Stuck on a puzzle someone else made? The word unscrambler finds words in a set of letters, and the crossword solver fills in words from the letters you already know.
Related guides
- How Crossword Clues Work: Abbreviations, Tense and Tricks
- Letter Frequency in English and the Best Starting Words
- How to Organize a Secret Santa: Rules, Budget, Remote Draws
Frequently asked questions
Is this word search maker free?
Yes. It is free, needs no signup and puts no watermark on the puzzle. The grid, the answer key and the PDF are made in your browser, so your words and your title are not sent to a server.
Why did some of my words not fit?
A fixed grid has only so many cells, and long words need a long free line in an allowed direction. The tool tries hard to fit every word and then lists the ones it could not place. Choose a bigger grid or Auto, allow more directions, remove a long word or try another seed. With Auto, the grid grows by one row and column at a time, up to 25 × 25, until every word fits.
Can I make the same puzzle again?
Yes. The same words, the same settings and the same seed always give exactly the same grid. Keep the seed, or use Copy link: the link stores the settings and the seed. It does not store your words or your title, so paste the same word list after opening the link to get the same puzzle back.
Why are accents removed from my words?
The grid uses the 26 letters A to Z, so a player never has to tell É from E. Accented letters are changed to their base letter, ß becomes SS and Æ becomes AE, and the tool tells you which words it changed. Words with digits or letters from other alphabets, such as Greek or Cyrillic, are left out and listed.
What do the difficulty levels change?
Only the directions words may run in. Easy uses left to right and top to bottom. Medium adds the two diagonals that read from left to right. Hard adds every backwards direction as well, eight in total. Fill letters taken from your own words make any level harder, because the grid is full of near misses.
Which paper size does the PDF use?
The one you pick under Paper: US Letter or A4. It starts on Letter when your browser language is US or Canadian English and on A4 otherwise. The PDF has two pages, the puzzle with its word list and the answer key with every word marked.