Word Search
Find the words hidden among the letters.
How to play
Every grid has a theme, and the words to find are listed below it. Press on the first letter of a word and drag to the last: the line snaps to a straight direction on its own. You can also just tap the first letter and then the last. A word you find is marked with a coloured band and crossed off the list, and a wrong pick costs you nothing. Words run across, down and diagonally, and in later levels backwards too; the directions allowed in a grid are shown above the list. Every grid also hides a hidden word that belongs to the theme but is not on the list. Only its length is shown; find it for 100 points and a star. Stuck? A Hint lights up the first letter of a word.
How to play Word Search: a complete guide
Word Search is a relaxing puzzle game where you find words hidden in a grid of letters with your finger or mouse. Every grid has a theme: fruits, birds, breakfast, Turkish cuisine, Turkish instruments, Istanbul neighbourhoods and many more. The words to find are listed next to the grid; each word you find is marked with a coloured band and crossed off the list.
This guide covers the two ways to select a word, how the grids grow, the hidden word, how points and stars work, hints and the three game modes.
The goal
Find every word on the list. Each word sits in a straight line and appears in the grid exactly once; the same word never turns up a second time somewhere else by accident. When the list is complete, the grid is done.
You can't lose, and there is no countdown that ends the game. Wrong selections cost nothing: if the letters you pick aren't a word on the list, the band shakes and disappears, and your score stays the same.
Selecting words: drag or two taps
- Drag: press the first letter of a word and slide your finger to its last letter. The line snaps to the nearest allowed direction, so it stays straight even if your finger wobbles a little.
- Two taps: tap the first letter, then tap the last one. Handy with a mouse or when dragging feels fiddly on a small screen.
- Backwards works too: selecting a word from its last letter to its first is also accepted.
- When you find a word you hear a short sound, the letters bounce and the word gets a permanent band in one of the tile colours.
An unfinished grid is saved; tap Continue on the home screen to pick up where you left off.
Grids and directions
The 60 levels are split into 6 notebooks of 10 levels each. As the grid grows, so do the number of words and directions. The directions used in a grid are shown with small arrows above the list, in the Directions row.
| Levels | Grid | Words | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10 | 8×8 | 6 | right, down |
| 11-20 | 9×9 | 7 | + diagonal down-right |
| 21-30 | 10×10 | 8 | + diagonal up-right |
| 31-40 | 11×11 | 9 | + left (backwards) |
| 41-50 | 12×12 | 10 | + up (backwards) |
| 51-60 | 13×13 | 12 | all eight directions |
In levels 1-30 each of the 30 themes appears once. Levels 31-60 bring the same themes back in bigger grids; words from the first round are avoided where possible, so you'll meet longer and less common words too.
The hidden word
Every grid hides one more word that belongs to the theme but isn't on the list. Only its letter count is shown below the list. Think about the theme, look for a word of that length and drag it like any other: you earn 100 points and a star.
The hidden word is optional. If you finish the list and the hidden word is still out there, the game tells you and a Finish button appears: keep looking or close the grid right there.
Points, stars and hints
Each word you find is worth 10 points per letter. Finish under the target time and you get a speed bonus: the faster you are, the bigger it is, up to half of your word points. The target time depends on the grid size and the number of words; it's about 2 minutes on an 8×8 grid and about 6 minutes on a 13×13 grid. The hidden word adds 100 points. A grid is always worth at least 10 points.
Each grid gives up to three stars: finish the grid, find the hidden word and beat the target time.
A Hint lights up the first letter of a word still on the list; press it again for the same word and the second letter lights up too. Once the list is done, a hint tells you the first letter of the hidden word. One hint per grid is free; after that it comes with an optional rewarded ad. Each hint costs 30 points but never takes away a star.
Game modes: Levels, Daily Puzzle, Free Hunt
- Levels: 6 notebooks, 60 themed grids. Levels open in order and you can replay any you've finished; you get the same grid, so you can collect a missing star. Each grid you finish (a level or the Daily Puzzle) counts separately on the main leaderboard; its Today, Week, Season and All time tabs show your best single-grid score.
- Daily Puzzle: the same 12×12 grid for everyone, 11 words, eight directions. It changes every night at midnight Turkish time, with a new theme each day. Only your first game of the day counts; your daily scores add up over the week for the weekly ranking, and the week starts on Monday.
- Free Hunt: choose a difficulty and get a fresh grid from a random theme every time. Easy is 8×8 with right and down only, Medium is 10×10 with four directions, Hard is 13×13 with all eight, backwards included. Free Hunt scores don't go on the leaderboard.
The first time you finish a theme, its culture card goes into your Album: 30 themes, 30 cards. The result screen also shows the theme's card under Did you know?
Tips
- Start with the longest word or the one with the rarest letter; letters like Q, Z, X and J stand out in the grid.
- Instead of reading row by row, look for a word's first letter, then check the eight letters around it.
- Keep the hidden word's length in mind; if a word that fits the theme catches your eye while you hunt, drag it straight away.
- Save your free hint for the last stubborn word; a second press lights the second letter and gives away the direction.
- On big grids, if your phone feels small, switch to two taps: tap the first letter, then the last.
- Replay levels with missing stars; the grid stays the same, so you'll spot the hidden word much faster the second time.
Word search: a world hidden between the letters
A word search is a puzzle where you find and mark the words from a list in a grid full of letters. The words lie in straight lines, across, down or diagonally, and sometimes backwards. It is a favourite on newspaper and magazine puzzle pages and suits every age. In our game, many of the themes come from Turkish culture: Turkish Cuisine, Turkish Sweets, Breakfast, Turkish Instruments, Turkish Crafts, Istanbul Neighbourhoods, Cities of Türkiye and Turkish Bazaar. Finishing a theme opens a culture card with a short fact about it, such as where the colour turquoise got its name. The levels are the pages of an old notebook kept by Master Nuri, a bookseller who is the game's fictional character.
- Type
- Word puzzle, pencil-and-paper puzzle
- Names in other languages
- Kelime avı, sopa de letras, caça-palavras, mots mêlés, Buchstabensalat
- Themes in the game
- 30 themes, 60 levels, 6 notebooks
- Culture cards
- 30 cards; UNESCO-listed traditions, protected local products, cities
- Grid size
- From 8×8 to 13×13
- Story
- Master Nuri's notebook (fictional)
A pencil-and-paper habit
A word search is a pencil-and-paper puzzle: words are hidden across, down and diagonally in a square full of letters, and you circle each one as you find it and cross it off the list. It shows up on newspaper puzzle pages, in puzzle magazines and in children's books. The rules take one sentence to explain, which is why people of every age can sit down with the same page.
The puzzle's name changes from language to language, and it often sounds like fun: Spanish calls it sopa de letras (letter soup), German Buchstabensalat (letter salad), French mots mêlés (mixed-up words) and Portuguese caça-palavras (word hunt). The Turkish name, kelime avı, means exactly the same: word hunt.
At school, at home, on the go
Teachers often use word searches in class to introduce new words and practise spelling: to find a word in the grid you have to keep its letters in order in your head. For adults a word search is an unhurried break; a few minutes while the tea brews, on a journey or on the back page of the newspaper. The answer is already written in the grid; the trick is to see it.
Türkiye in the themes
Each of the game's 30 themes unlocks a culture card, and most of them carry a short fact about Türkiye. The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, comes from kahve altı, a light meal eaten before coffee. The word turquoise means Turkish stone in French, because the gem reached Europe through Anatolia. Keşkek (2011), Turkish coffee culture (2013), the tradition of the aşık minstrels (2009), Kırkpınar oil wrestling (2010) and the art of ebru marbling (2014) are all on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. In 2013 Gaziantep baklava became the first Turkish product with a protected geographical indication in the European Union.
Other cards take you to cities and history: Istanbul's Tünel opened in 1875; Pamukkale and the ancient city of Hierapolis joined the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988; the new 29-letter Turkish alphabet was adopted in 1928; Türkiye has 81 provinces. General themes bring universal facts as well, such as the 206 bones in an adult human skeleton.
The bookseller's notebook: fiction and fact
The game's story is set in an old book bazaar in Istanbul. A sahaf is a seller of old and second-hand books, and the Sahaflar Çarşısı in Beyazıt, right next to the Grand Bazaar, is the well-known home of this trade. Master Nuri in the story, however, is a fictional character: he hands you the puzzle notebook he filled for years, because his eyes can no longer make out the letters. Every page of the notebook is a theme and every theme is a card; when the last page is done, Master Nuri glues the cards into the album.
How Word Search was made
Word search is a puzzle everyone knows from the back pages of newspapers and magazines. Our question was simple: can this familiar game become truly comfortable on a phone, and teach something along the way? We looked for the answer in Turkish culture. Every grid has a theme: it starts with fruit and moves on to Turkish cuisine, sweets, Anatolian instruments, traditional crafts, Istanbul neighbourhoods and the cities of Türkiye. Finish any of the thirty themes and you earn a short, accurate culture card about it.
The hardest thing on a phone is drawing a straight line with a finger. So the selection line locks onto the nearest direction on its own, even if your finger drifts a little, and you can also tap the first and last letters instead. A wrong selection costs nothing, because word search should relax you, not rush you. The grids grow from 8×8 to 13×13; words are hidden first only to the right and down, then diagonally, and finally backwards.
The idea that is our own is the hidden word. Every grid holds one more word that belongs to the theme but is not on the list; only its number of letters is shown. Scanning the list is not enough, you also have to think about the theme. Every fact on the culture cards was checked one by one, and nothing uncertain made it onto a card. The story is told by a fictional character: in the old book bazaar of Beyazıt in Istanbul, Master Nuri, whose eyes can no longer pick out the letters, hands you the puzzle notebook he filled for years.
Each language has its own words. The English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Russian lists were not translated from Turkish; each was written separately with everyday words of that language. Grids are generated from a number, so the same level looks the same for everyone. Every grid is checked so that each word appears exactly once and the random letters never spell a rude word, and all sixty levels were solved from start to finish in seven languages by a computer player.
The music, in the Uşşak makam with plucked string tones, was synthesised in code, and the grids, the cover and the story scenes were all drawn in code. The game launched as version 1.0 on 15 October 2026 and can be played in seven languages.
Frequently asked questions
What is the hidden word, and do I have to find it?
Every grid hides one more word from the theme that isn't on the list; only its letter count is shown. It's optional: find it for 100 points and a star. Once the list is done, you can close the grid with the Finish button.
Does a word count if I drag it backwards?
Yes. Selecting a word from its last letter to its first is accepted. Words actually written backwards only appear from level 31 on; the Directions row shows which directions a grid uses.
How is the target time set?
It depends on the grid size and the number of words: about 2 minutes on an 8×8 grid and about 6 minutes on a 13×13 grid. Beat it for a star and a speed bonus; the earlier you finish, the bigger the bonus.
Do I lose a star if I use a hint?
No. A hint only costs 30 points and never touches your stars. One hint per grid is free; further hints come by watching an optional ad.
If I replay a level, do I get a new grid?
No, you get the same grid, so you can collect a missing star such as the hidden word or the target time. If you want a new grid every time, open Free Hunt.
Does replaying the Daily Puzzle change my score?
No. Only your first game of the day counts for the weekly ranking. You can play the grid again after finishing it, but your score stays the same. A new puzzle arrives at midnight Turkish time.
How do I unlock culture cards?
The first time you finish a theme, in Levels or in the Daily Puzzle, its card goes into your Album. There are 30 themes and 30 cards, and the Album shows how many you've unlocked.
Does switching language reset my progress?
No. Levels, stars and cards are the same in every language; only the words come from that language's own word pool. They aren't translations: each list is built from words that people actually use in that language.
How are letters written in the grid?
The grid is in capital letters with accents removed, while the list shows each word with its proper spelling. Names of two or more words, such as Hide and Seek, are written without spaces in the grid.
Is Word Search free?
Yes. No download or account needed; it plays right in your browser. Watching an ad for a hint is always your choice.
Will I lose my progress?
Your progress is saved automatically on this device. Sign in and it moves to your account, so you can continue on any device.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The game opens full screen on phones; tap the X in the corner to exit. On iPhone use "Add to Home Screen" to play it like an app.
Can I play Word Search offline?
Yes. A game you have opened once is stored on your phone or computer and opens without internet. Leaderboards and cloud saves need a connection.
Which languages are available?
Turkish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Russian.
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