How to play Word Search

Word Search is a relaxed hunt through a grid of letters for a list of hidden words. Each puzzle is a twelve-by-twelve square holding about ten words tucked among random filler letters. The words you are looking for are listed beside the grid; as you find them they are struck through, and a gentle timer tracks how long the whole hunt takes if you fancy beating it.

Goal

Find every word on the list. Words run in straight lines and can point in any of eight directions — left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, and along both diagonals — so a word may be spelled forwards or backwards.

How to play

• Press on the first letter of a word, drag across the letters to the last one, and release. On a touch screen, drag with your finger; with a mouse, hold the button down as you sweep.
• The line you draw must be perfectly straight — horizontal, vertical, or at a true 45-degree diagonal. As you drag, the cells you are covering light up so you can see your selection.
• If the highlighted letters match a word on the list, that word is marked found and the cells stay coloured in. Release a line that matches nothing and the grid simply clears, ready for your next try.
• Find all of the listed words to complete the puzzle, then start a fresh grid whenever you like.

Strategy and tips

The fastest way in is to hunt for a word's rarest letter — its Z, Q, J, X, or K — because there are far fewer of those scattered across the grid. Once you spot one, check the eight directions radiating out from it for the rest of the word. It also helps to scan methodically: run your eye along each row, then each column, then the diagonals, rather than darting about. Long words tend to stretch across an edge or corner since they need the room, while short three-letter words can hide almost anywhere, so leave the trickiest ones for last. Remember that a word can read backwards, so do not dismiss a promising run just because the letters seem reversed.