Word Seek: Free Online Word Search

Word Seek is our own themed word search. Each puzzle has a theme, from ocean life and dinosaurs to the coffee shop and the castle keep, and a list of words that belong to it. Every word on the list is hidden in the grid of letters in a straight line: across, down or diagonal, and on the harder grids backwards too. Words can cross and share letters.

Drag from a word's first letter to its last and let go. The selection snaps to the nearest straight line, so a slightly wobbly diagonal on a phone still lands on the right letters. You can also tap the first letter and then the last. While you drag, the letters show above the grid and turn green when they spell a word you still need. Each word you find gets its own highlighter colour on the grid and in the list, so you can always tell which word is which.

Every puzzle also hides one more theme word that is not on the list: the mystery word. The list only shows how many letters it has. Find it for bonus points. A puzzle is solved when you find every listed word. You score 10 points per letter of the listed words, 50 per letter of the mystery word, and a time bonus that is bigger the faster you finish.

Each day brings a new daily puzzle, a 12×12 grid with twelve words, the same for everyone, with its theme on the start screen. Solving it each day builds your streak, and only the daily puzzle posts a score to the leaderboard. Free play lets you pick any of 53 themes, or a random one, on Easy (9×9, forwards only), Medium (12×12) or Hard (13×13, all eight directions), and keeps your fastest times and best scores. If you have gems, you can ring the first letter of a word you can't find or show a whole word. Neither lowers your score.

Every grid comes from the game's own generator, which checks that each word can be read in exactly one place. Word Seek is free to play in your browser with no download or sign-up, and its themes, art, music and sound effects are made for the game.