Word Search Tips: How to Find Words Faster

To find words faster in a word search, don't look for the first letter of each word. Look for its rarest letter, like the Z in ZEBRA or the K in SKUNK, then check the eight squares around it for the letter that comes next. After that, spot double letters, sweep one direction at a time, and remember that words can run backward and share letters with each other.

Most word search guides give advice like this, so we checked it. Here's how, and what the numbers say.

How we measured

We generated 1,800 puzzles with Poozee's Word Search: 600 at each level, 50 for each of its 12 themes. Easy puzzles are 10 by 10 with 8 words that run across or down. Medium puzzles are 12 by 12 with 12 words and add diagonals. Hard puzzles are 15 by 15 with 16 words in all eight directions, including backward.

We can't time how fast you read, but we can count what a puzzle makes you search through: how many squares hold the letter you're looking for, how words are laid out, and how often they cross. A word's "rarest letter" means the one that's least common in English, using the standard ranking of English letter frequency (E, T, A, O, I, N at the top, J, X, Q, Z at the bottom), because that's something you can judge before you start looking. Other puzzle books and sites build their grids differently, so treat the exact numbers as a guide to our puzzles and the ideas as general.

1. Hunt the rarest letter, not the first letter

Most people start by looking for a word's first letter. The trouble is that first letters are often common ones, like the S in SEAHORSE or the T in TIGER, and a common letter can show up in a dozen spots. Each one is a place you have to stop and check.

Pick the letter in the word that's least common in English instead. Letters like Z, Q, X, J, K, V, B and P are rare, while E, T, A, O, I, N and S are everywhere. In OCTOPUS, that's the P:

Across all 1,800 puzzles, the rarest letter left far fewer squares to check at every level:

On Hard puzzles, that's about 40% fewer places to look for every word on the list.

2. Check the eight squares around it

Once you've found a candidate letter, you don't need to scan the whole grid for the rest of the word. The next letter has to be touching it: above, below, left, right or on one of the four diagonals. If none of those eight squares holds a letter that belongs next to it in the word, move on to the next candidate.

For OCTOPUS, the P is in the middle of the word, so look for an O on one side and a U on the opposite side. The first P in the grid has neither nearby, so it's ruled out in a second.

3. Look for double letters

Pairs like the LL in GORILLA, the OO in RACCOON or the EE in SEAWEED are easy to pick out because the same letter twice in a row stands out when you scan. They're also fairly rare. On our Hard puzzles, a word's double-letter pair could be read in 5.0 places on average, while its first letter filled 11.0 squares.

4. Sweep one direction at a time

Scanning in every direction at once is how words get missed. Go through the grid in passes: every row left to right, then every column top to bottom, then the diagonals.

Start with rows and columns, because that's where most words are. On our Hard level, 67% of words run straight across or up and down, and only 33% run diagonally. On Medium, about a quarter of the words (26%) are diagonal. Long words fit more easily across and down than on a slant, which is part of why diagonals are the minority.

Pro tip: Run a finger, a pencil or your cursor along each row as you scan. It keeps your eyes from jumping lines, which is the most common way to miss a word in a row you've already "checked."

5. Read backward on hard puzzles

When a puzzle allows backward words, expect a lot of them. On our Hard level, 49% of words run backward: right to left, bottom to top, or right to left along a diagonal. That's almost exactly half, so a pass that only reads forward will miss about every second word.

You don't need to read every line twice. Look for the word's rarest letter as usual, then check its neighbors in both directions.

6. Don't skip letters that are already used

Words cross each other and share letters, like SEAL and OCTOPUS above. If you skip every letter that's already highlighted, you'll skip part of another word. On our Hard puzzles, two out of three words (68%) share at least one square with another word. Even on Easy, more than half do (54%).

7. Cross off words as you go

Always strike a word off the list the moment you find it, so you never search for the same word twice. When a few words are left, read the list again and look for anything unusual: a Q, a Z, a double letter or a very long word. Those are the easiest to spot, so save the plain short words, like TIDE or SAND, for when you can concentrate on them.

It also helps to know how much of the grid is just filler. On our Hard puzzles, 57% of the letters don't belong to any word. Most of what your eyes pass over is noise, which is exactly why a rare letter or a double letter is such a good anchor.

Word search tips for kids and classrooms

• Start with Easy puzzles, where words only run across and down. Add diagonals and backward words once finding across and down feels easy.
• Use a finger or a ruler to follow each row. It's the simplest way to stay on the right line.
• Say the word's letters out loud before looking, and pick one "hunting letter" together.
• Print a puzzle. The Print button on our Word Search gives you a clean page with just the grid and the word list, with a fresh puzzle every time.

Keep playing

• Play Word Search with 12 themes on three levels
• Word Guess, a daily five-letter word puzzle
• Best Wordle starting words
• Free games to play on a Chromebook