How to Make a Word Search Puzzle (Free Online Maker)

Here is how to make a word search: you hide a list of words in a square of letters and fill the empty cells with random letters. That is all the idea, but a few choices decide whether the page is pleasant or frustrating. This guide follows the free word search maker step by step, with its real limits, and checks a finished grid cell by cell.

How to make a word search: choose the words

Start with a theme, because a list that belongs together is easier to read and more satisfying to find: fruit, the rooms of a house, the words of a school lesson. Type one word per line. The free maker accepts up to 20 words, and it only keeps words of 3 letters or more that are not longer than the grid.

• Mix lengths. A list of ten words of exactly five letters makes a dull grid; three short words, four medium and three long ones give the eye something to latch onto.
• Avoid a word that sits inside another word of your list, such as CAT and CATALOG. The maker does not remove it for you, and a solver may highlight the wrong one.
• Keep the words in the language of the puzzle. Accents are dropped automatically, so you do not need to type them.

Pick the grid size and the level

The free maker offers four sizes and three levels. The level only changes the directions in which words can be hidden:

Our suggestion, not a rule: the number of cells is the square of the size, so a 10 x 10 grid has 100 cells and an 18 x 18 grid has 324. If your words add up to more than about half of the cells, the placement gets crowded and the maker may skip words. Add up the letters before you choose the size.

A real example, checked

We used the fruit list from the tool's own example (APPLE, BANANA, CHERRY, GRAPE, LEMON, MANGO, MELON, ORANGE, PEACH, PEAR) in a 12 x 12 grid at the medium level. The words add up to 52 letters in 144 cells, about 36 percent. Here is the puzzle, then the same grid with every word marked.

We checked this grid with a script that reads it in all 8 directions. Each of the ten words appears exactly once, and the words use 51 different cells because two words share a single letter. That check matters because the maker fills the empty cells with random letters from A to Z: a short word can sometimes appear a second time by chance.

Check the grid before you print

How the maker places the words

The longest words go first. For each word, the maker tries random positions and directions up to 400 times, and a word may cross another one only where the letters are the same. It repeats the whole grid up to 30 times and keeps the grid with the most words placed. This is why a crowded list can leave a word out, while a lighter list always fits.

Print it with the solution

When the grid looks right, download the PDF. It is a US Letter page. Page 1 has the title, the grid and the list of words under it in alphabetical order, in four columns. Page 2 has the solution, with the letters of the words in blue and all the other letters in light grey. A small LogikLand footer says that the page is for personal use. You can also show the solution on screen first to check where the words went.

The size you choose changes the letters on paper. The grid is drawn with cells of at most half an inch, so 10 x 10 and 12 x 12 grids use letters of about 20 points, a 15 x 15 grid about 18 points and an 18 x 18 grid about 15 points. If the puzzle is for someone who reads slowly, stay with 10 x 10 or 12 x 12. Our suggestion, not a rule: print one page and read it at arm's length before you make copies.

For a puzzle that spells a secret sentence with the unused letters, see how to make a word search with a hidden message.

When one puzzle is not enough

The free tool makes one puzzle at a time. A whole book needs many grids, word categories, levels and a solutions section. That is the job of the Word Search assistant, which you open after you create a free account. If your readers are older, read what makes a grid easy to read before you choose sizes, and see how to make a word puzzle book for Amazon KDP when you are ready to publish.

Questions