Word Search Strategies: How to Find Words Faster

You don't get faster at word search by reading the grid over and over. The people who solve these puzzles quickly look for one or two letters that stand out, check the letters around them, and move on. Here are the techniques that help the most, in the order you should try them.

Start with the rare letters

Look at the word list for uncommon letters like Q, Z, X, J, and K. The random filler between words is mostly common letters, so when you spot a Q in the grid, it almost always belongs to a word. If the list has QUARTZ in it, don't search for QUARTZ. Search for the Q. W, V, and Y work too, just not as well.

Look for letter pairs, not single letters

Common letters are bad starting points on their own; a big grid can easily hold thirty Es. Instead, look for two letters that sit next to each other. For BREAD, search for a B with an R right next to it, in any direction. Double letters are even better. If the list has COFFEE or PUZZLE, look for FF or ZZ: two of the same letter side by side is easy to spot, and the filler almost never doubles up.

Sweep the grid in a fixed pattern

Scanning at random means reading the same rows again and again while skipping others. When you are stuck, switch to a fixed pattern so every cell gets looked at once:

• Row sweep: go along each row from left to right, top to bottom, looking only for the first letter of the word you want. This catches horizontal words in both directions.
• Column sweep: do the same down each column to catch the vertical words.
• Follow the line with your finger or cursor. It sounds silly, but it keeps your eyes from jumping around, and jumping around is the main reason you miss words.

How to spot backward and diagonal words

Backward and diagonal words are usually the last ones left, because they go against how your eyes are used to reading. Two tricks help. First, search from the other end: a backward word is just a normal word that starts at its last letter. Second, when you find a matching letter, check all eight letters around it. The diagonal ones are exactly the ones your eyes want to skip.

Use the length of the word

Strangely enough, long words are the easy ones. They have more letters to search for, and near the edges of the grid they only fit in a few directions. Find them first. Short words made of common letters, like TEA or SUN, take the longest, so keep them for the end, when most of the grid is already crossed out.

Let the theme help you

Read the whole word list before you start. Once the words are fresh in your memory, you will often recognize one from just two or three letters. That is also why you sometimes run into a word you weren't even looking for. Take it and cross it off the list.

Getting faster is mostly practice

These word search tips are habits, and they settle in fast. A few puzzles a day for a week is enough to notice the difference. If you want to measure it, play timed word search puzzles of the same size and watch your times go down.

You can try all of this right now: play a free word search online with fifty themes to choose from. Words run in all eight directions, so the backward and diagonal tricks will get plenty of use.