Word Search

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 23 October 2026 6 min read

Put word searches on your website. You type a list of words, the letter grid is laid out for you, and visitors race the clock to find them all and top the leaderboard. Word Search is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

You type the words; it builds the grid. The preview updates as you type. Not happy with it? Shuffle lays the same words out another way. Any word that will not fit is listed so you can change it.
Up to 40 words, each 3 to 15 letters. Spaces and hyphens are fine: "Sea horse" is hidden as SEAHORSE, and the list shows it as you typed it. Accents are dropped (Café is CAFE) and Ø, Æ and ß are spelled out (Smørrebrød is SMORREBROD); letters outside A to Z, such as Greek, cannot go in a grid.
Grid size from 8 × 8 to 20 × 20, or Auto to fit the words.
Directions: across, down and diagonal, each on or off, and Backwards too for a harder grid.
Word list shown or hidden. Hidden, players are only told how many words to find (and the theme, if you give one): "Find 12 words about sea creatures".
Timing kept by the server, from the moment the word search is started to the moment the last word is found.
A wrong mark costs time (5 seconds unless you change it), so marking every line to find the words does not pay.
Leaderboards of the fastest finders for today, this week, this month and all time, best go per name.
Where the words are never reaches the visitor's browser until they have found them all. The random letters around the words are checked so they never add a second copy of a word on the list, or a rude word.
Optional overall time limit, opening and closing times, and a limit on goes per name.
Hints if you want them: each shows where one word starts, and adds seconds to the time.
Personal best on the finished screen, and a Share button.

Getting started

Switch Word Search on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Word Search and choose New word search.
Add your words. Ten to twenty make a good grid. Pasting a list (one word per line, or separated by commas) adds them all at once.
Press Test and play it yourself (see below).
Set the status to Open and save.
Put it on any page:

[word-search id="sea-life" /]

Testing a word search

Test (in the editor, on each word search in the list, and on its Plays screen) opens the word search right there in the admin, exactly as your players will see it: the same grid, clock and penalties.

It plays the version you last saved. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test, and saves first.
It works whatever the status, so you can try a draft before anyone can see it.
A test go is never saved to the leaderboard. It is not in the Plays list, it does not count towards the goes each name is allowed, and it does not raise a notification. When you finish, it tells you where you would have come.
Each new test clears away the one before.

Moving word searches between sites

Export a word search from its menu in the list (right-click it, or ⋮), or from the download button at the top of its editor. Export all at the top of the list puts every word search in one file. The file holds the words, settings and layout number - never who played them.

Import… at the top of the list adds the word searches in such a file to this site:

Each arrives as a draft. Test it, then set it to Open.
The grid is laid out again from the words, size, directions and layout number, so it comes out the same as on the site it came from.
Nothing already here is changed. A word search whose short name is taken gets one of its own (sea-life-2), so check the shortcode before putting it on a page.
Importing the same file twice makes copies. One that is not valid is skipped, and the message says which and why.
Up to 50 word searches at a time. A quiz or crossword file belongs in Quiz or Crossword.

Leaderboards

The leaderboard shows beside the game. The board setting on the shortcode changes that:

[word-search id="sea-life" board="hide" /]    the game only
[word-search id="sea-life" board="only" /]    the leaderboard only

A leaderboard on its own, anywhere:

[word-search-leaderboard id="sea-life" period="all" limit="10" title="Fastest finders" /]

Leaderboard opens on (in the editor, under Rules and leaderboard) picks the period a leaderboard shows first when the shortcode does not say: today, this week, this month or all time. Players can still switch.

Every Game's leaderboards on one page, grouped by Game:

[games-leaderboards /]
[games-leaderboards games="word-search,crossword" period="week" limit="5" /]

It shows every open word search (and quiz, crossword and daily word) that has a leaderboard switched on. Leave out period to use each one's own.

Hints

Switch on Players can ask for hints (in the editor's Hints section) and set how many a game (1 to 10, 3 unless you change it) and how many seconds each adds (15 unless you change it).

A hint marks the square where one word not yet found starts - never which way the word runs. The square stays marked until the word is found. Each hint adds its seconds to the player's time, so a clean solve still beats one with hints, and the leaderboard shows a small H with the number of hints beside anyone who used them. The finished screen says how many were used; so does the Plays screen, beside the name. Test goes can use hints too.

Animations

The letters pop in when a game starts, a found word's letters pop one after another, a wrong mark gives the grid a shake, and the finished screen and leaderboard rows pop in. Switch Animations off (under Rules and leaderboard) to have none. Visitors who asked for less motion - in their device settings, or with the site's motion switch - never see them either way. They never slow the game down: the clock is the server's.

When a game is over

The finished screen shows the time, the place on the leaderboard, and the player's personal best under that name ("New personal best!" when this was it). Share copies a line to paste anywhere - the word search's name, how many words were found and the time, never a word or where one was.

Playing

Mark each word from its first letter to its last:

Drag from the first letter to the last and let go.
Or tap the first letter, then tap the last. Tap the first letter again to let it go.
With a keyboard: the arrow keys move, Enter (or Space) marks the start and then the end, and Escape lets the start go.

A word can be marked from either end. Found words are crossed off the list and ringed on the grid. If the page is reloaded, the words found so far come back (the clock does not stop).

Changing a word search people are playing

Change the words, the grid size, the directions or the layout of an open word search and anyone part-way through it has to start again (their finds no longer line up with the new grid). Finished plays and the leaderboard are kept. Change the title, introduction or rules as you like.

Looking after the board

Open a word search's Plays to see every go (your own test goes are not shown). You can hide a play from the leaderboard, delete it, or reset the leaderboard.