How to make a word search
1. Give the puzzle a title. 2. Type or paste your words into the box, one per line or separated by commas. 3. Pick a difficulty and leave the grid size on Auto. 4. Click Make word search. The puzzle appears below the form, ready to solve, print or share.
Auto picks the smallest grid that fits your words comfortably and grows it if they don’t fit, up to 20 by 20. You can also choose a size yourself; a bigger grid with the same words is harder, because there are more stray letters to search through.
Easy, medium and hard
Easy hides words only across (left to right) and down, and fills the gaps with random letters. It suits early readers. Medium adds diagonals. Hard hides words in all eight directions, including backwards, and fills the gaps with letters taken from your own words, so the leftover letters look like near-misses.
Every word appears in the grid exactly once, so nobody finds a word in two places. Spaces and punctuation are left out: “Ice cream” is hidden as ICECREAM, and the list shows it the way you typed it.
Print it or share it
Print puts the puzzle on one page with large letters and the word list underneath. Print with answers adds a second page with every word circled. To get a PDF, choose “Save as PDF” as the printer. New grid hides the same words in new places, so you can print a different version for each table or each student.
Copy share link copies a link to the exact puzzle on screen, including its title, difficulty and layout. The words are packed into the part of the link after the # sign, which browsers never send to a server, so Wordformat never sees them. Anyone who opens the link gets the same puzzle and can play it online or print it.
Ideas for word lists
Teachers use word searches for weekly spelling lists, science vocabulary, and the names of characters in a class novel. For parties, try the guests’ names, things from the theme (“Under the sea”: shark, coral, octopus), or inside jokes. For older players, a longer list of 25 or more words in a hard 18 by 18 grid takes a good while to finish.