Word Search Generator

Puzzle title:

Used in the puzzle heading and export filenames; keep it short for printouts.

Word list:

One A-Z word per line; spaces, punctuation, digits, and accents are ignored.

{{ parsedWords.invalid.length }} invalid line{{ parsedWords.invalid.length === 1 ? '' : 's' }} ignored. {{ parsedWords.invalid.slice(0, 5).join(', ') }}

Grid size:

Enter 5-25; the longest word must fit within this number of cells.

{{ gridSize }} × {{ gridSize }}

Seed:

Leave blank for a new layout, or reuse a seed to regenerate the same grid.

Direction options:

Diagonals add slanted paths; backwards adds reverse directions to the search.

Preview cell size:

Range 24-48 px; lower values fit large grids better on screen.

Letter cell size {{ cellSize }} px

Colour theme:

Choose print-friendly colour sets used for puzzle cells and answer highlights.

Export quality:

Range 1-3x; higher scale sharpens exports but takes longer.

Capture scale {{ exportScaleDisplay }}

PDF page size:

Choose A4, Letter, Legal, or A3 to match the target paper.

PDF orientation:

Use portrait for handouts; landscape helps wider grids.

PDF margin:

Enter 0-32 mm; use larger margins for printers that clip edges.

{{ foundWordCount === placedWords.length ? 'Word search complete' : 'Find the hidden words' }}

{{ playProgressPercent }}%

{{ foundWordCount }} found {{ placedWords.length - foundWordCount }} remaining {{ directionModeLabel }}

{{ w }} {{ isWordFound(w) ? 'found' : 'hidden' }}

{{ w }}

{{ printableTitle }} answer key

{{ w }} placed

Field	Value	Copy
{{ row.field }}	{{ row.value }}

Word	Status	Start	Direction	Copy
{{ row.word }}	{{ row.status }}	{{ row.start }}	{{ row.direction }}
No word placements yet Generate a puzzle with at least one valid word to populate this ledger.

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A word search hides chosen words inside a square field of letters. Solvers look for straight runs across rows, down columns, and sometimes through diagonals or reverse directions. The format is familiar enough for quick classroom use, but a reliable puzzle still depends on word cleanup, grid capacity, direction choice, and a checked answer key.

The puzzle is best understood as recognition practice. It can help learners notice spelling patterns, revisit topic vocabulary, and stay engaged with a word list. It does not prove that a student understands the meaning of every term, so word searches work best beside reading, discussion, definitions, writing, or another activity that uses the words in context.

Difficulty changes for reasons that are not always obvious from the finished grid. A larger square creates more hiding space, but it may also make a printed handout harder to read. Diagonal and reverse paths add search challenge. Long words need open routes, and dense lists can block later placements unless matching letters overlap cleanly.

Common word search setup choices and their effects
Choice	What it affects	Common mistake
Grid size	Room for long words, overlaps, and filler letters.	Using a small grid for many long entries.
Direction set	Search difficulty and placement success.	Adding reverse or diagonal paths before beginners are ready.
Letter cleanup	Which list entries can become hidden words.	Leaving spaces, punctuation, digits, or unsupported characters in the source list.
Answer check	Whether every intended word is actually placed.	Printing a full-looking grid before reviewing skipped words.

Diagram showing a cleaned word list becoming a square word search grid with answer paths and placement records.

Checking the answer key matters because a filled grid can hide a problem. Every empty cell receives a filler letter, so the page may look complete even when one intended word was rejected or could not find a legal path. The word list, answer key, and placement report should agree before the puzzle is shared.

For younger learners or first exposure, forward horizontal and vertical words are usually the gentlest setup. Reverse and diagonal paths are better for review, longer sessions, or solvers who already know the vocabulary.

How to Use This Tool:

Start with clean words and placement rules. Adjust visual export settings after the placed-word count and answer key look correct.

Enter a Puzzle title. It appears on puzzle materials and helps name exported files.
Paste the Word list, one entry per line. Use A to Z letters only. Lines with spaces, punctuation, digits, or accented characters are shown as invalid and ignored.
Open Advanced when the default setup needs changes. Set Grid size from 5 to 25, and make sure the longest word is no longer than the grid edge.
Choose direction difficulty. Allow diagonals adds slanted paths. Allow backwards adds reverse paths, including reverse diagonals when diagonals are also enabled.
Add a Seed if the same layout needs to be rebuilt later. Leave it blank when a new layout is acceptable.
Click Generate puzzle. Review the summary badges for placed words, fill percentage, skipped words, direction mode, and seed.
Check Answer Key, Build Report, and Word Placements before exporting. If words are skipped, increase the grid size, shorten the list, loosen direction restrictions, or try another seed.

Interpreting Results:

The placed-word count is the first quality check. A completed-looking grid only proves that every cell contains a letter. Compare Valid words, Placed words, Skipped words, and Invalid lines ignored in the Build Report.

Word Placements gives the audit trail for each valid word. Placed rows show the word, start cell, end cell, and direction. Skipped rows explain whether a word was too long or failed to find a legal path. Answer Key highlights the solution mask and is the most useful review before printing or sharing.

Fill percentage measures occupied answer cells, not puzzle difficulty. Shared overlap cells count once.
Direction mode changes the solver's task. Right-and-down puzzles are gentler than grids with reverse and diagonal paths.
Seed repeats a layout only when the same word list, grid size, and direction settings are used again.
The play view is useful for trying the puzzle yourself. It accepts a straight selected path in either direction when it matches a placed word.

Technical Details:

Word-search construction is a constrained placement problem. Each valid answer must fit inside an N x N grid along an allowed vector. A candidate path is legal only when every cell stays inside the square and every occupied cell already contains the same letter.

Long words are attempted before short words because they have fewer possible routes. More directions create more candidate paths, while dense lists create more collisions. After placement attempts finish, remaining blank cells receive seeded filler letters so the visible grid has no empty spaces.

Transformation Core:

Word search generation stages
Stage	Rule	Visible result
Clean word lines	Trim each non-empty line, uppercase it, and accept only A to Z letters.	Invalid lines are reported and left out of placement.
Bound the grid	Round the grid size and clamp it from 5 to 25.	The puzzle is always a square from `5 x 5` through `25 x 25`.
Order words	Try longer words before shorter words.	Long entries get first access to open rows, columns, and diagonals.
Try paths	Use the active direction set and seeded start cells for up to 500 attempts per word.	Words with no legal path are marked as skipped.
Allow matching overlaps	A new word may share a cell only when the existing letter is identical.	Overlaps save space without changing answer letters.
Fill blanks	Remaining cells receive seeded A to Z filler letters.	The puzzle sheet is visually complete even when skipped words exist.

Direction Rules:

Word search direction settings and allowed paths
Settings	Allowed paths	Summary label
No diagonal, no backward	Left to right and top to bottom.	Right + down
Diagonal on, backward off	Left to right, top to bottom, diagonal down-right, and diagonal down-left.	4 forward directions
Diagonal off, backward on	Left to right, top to bottom, right to left, and bottom to top.	4 straight directions
Diagonal on, backward on	Horizontal, vertical, and both diagonal families in both directions.	8 directions

Validation Boundaries:

Word search validation boundaries
Item	Accepted range or pattern	What happens outside it
Word entry	One or more letters from A to Z.	The line is listed as invalid and ignored.
Grid size	Whole number from 5 to 25.	The value is rounded and clamped into range.
Word length	No longer than the selected grid edge.	The word is too long for any straight path.
Placement path	Inside the grid, using empty cells or matching overlap letters.	The attempt is rejected and another candidate is tried.

Formula Core:

The build report's fill percentage uses occupied answer cells, not total letters across all placed words.

fill percentage = \frac{O}{N^{2}} \times 100

O is the number of grid cells in the answer mask, and N is the selected grid size. If two words share a matching letter cell, that cell contributes once to O.

Play progress is based on placed words found by the solver.

progress = \frac{F}{P} \times 100

F is the number of found placed words, and P is the number of placed words. The displayed progress rounds to the nearest whole percent.

Privacy Notes:

Puzzle generation, play selection, answer highlighting, report rows, CSV preparation, and JSON preparation happen in the browser session. Some document, image, and PDF export actions load public third-party browser libraries on demand.

A word list can contain classroom names, private event terms, or internal project vocabulary. Treat exported files as containing that same information.
The JSON output includes the full grid, answer mask, seed, placed words, skipped words, invalid lines, and report rows.
Changing cell size, theme, export quality, paper size, orientation, or margin changes presentation and files. It does not change placement unless the puzzle is generated again with different placement settings.

Worked Examples:

Classroom vocabulary handout. A teacher enters PYTHON, SUNSET, MALAYSIA, PUZZLE, VECTOR, CODING, ALGORITHM, and SERVER in a 15 by 15 grid with diagonals and backwards paths enabled. After generation, Build Report should show valid words, placed words, fill percentage, direction mode, and seed. The teacher checks Answer Key before exporting the puzzle sheet.

Too-long science term. A 10 by 10 puzzle includes PHOTOSYNTHESIS. The word has 14 letters, so Word Placements marks it as too long and Skipped words increases. A grid size of at least 14 gives the term a possible straight path, although the seed and direction settings still decide whether placement succeeds.

Invalid party list cleanup. A themed list includes ICE-CREAM, H2O, and CAFE. The first two lines are invalid because punctuation and digits are not accepted. Rewriting them as ICECREAM and WATER removes the invalid-line warning, while CAFE is accepted because it contains only A to Z letters.

Advanced Tips:

Save the displayed Seed with printed materials when a matching answer key or replacement copy may be needed.
Use a larger Grid size for long terms or dense lists, then lower Preview cell size if the on-screen grid becomes too wide.
Choose Allow diagonals before Allow backwards for a moderate difficulty increase. Turning both on creates the broadest search space.
Set Export quality, page size, orientation, and margin after placement is final because those settings affect files, not the puzzle layout.

FAQ:

Why was a word skipped?

A word is skipped when it is longer than the grid or when no legal path is found after the placement attempts. Check Word Placements, then try a larger grid, a shorter list, another seed, or more directions.

Why did a line become invalid?

The word list accepts only A to Z letters after trimming and uppercasing. Remove spaces, punctuation, digits, and accented characters before generating again.

Can I recreate the same puzzle?

Yes. Keep the same word list, grid size, direction settings, and seed. A blank seed creates a new seed for that generation, so save the displayed seed if you want to repeat it later.

Does a higher fill percentage mean a harder puzzle?

No. Fill percentage measures answer cells divided by grid area. Difficulty also depends on word familiarity, word length, direction choices, overlaps, and solver experience.

Why does the play view accept a word backwards?

The play view checks whether the selected cells match a placed word path in either order. That lets a solver drag from start to end or end to start without changing the answer key.

Glossary:

Answer key: The puzzle view that highlights the cells belonging to placed words.
Answer mask: The hidden map of occupied answer cells used to compute fill percentage and highlight solutions.
Direction mode: The current set of horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and reverse paths allowed for word placement.
Fill percentage: The share of grid cells occupied by placed answer letters.
Placement attempt: A candidate start cell and direction tested for one word.
Seed: A repeatable value used to drive word placement and filler letters for the same puzzle settings.
Skipped word: A valid word that was not placed because it was too long or could not find a legal path.

References:

Word search, Cambridge Dictionary.
Word Study: Learning Word Patterns, Reading Rockets.
Basics: Sight Words and Orthographic Mapping, Reading Rockets.