Word search maker for your own word lists
Type your own words, choose how big the grid should be and press the button. The word search fills the classroom board, where the class points out the words and crosses them off. That is free, with no account and no adverts. You can hand it out as well: print it on paper.
How it works
Type your words
One word per line, or paste this week's spelling list; commas and tabs work too. The tool counts along, so you can see the list is complete.
Choose size and directions
Small, medium or large, and whether words may run diagonally or backwards. Straight lines are enough at six or seven; with everything on, a word can run in all eight directions.
Make the word search
One press and the grid is there. If you do not like where a word landed, press again: the same words, a different grid.
Solve it or print it
On the board you drag from the first letter to the last, and a word that has been found stays coloured in. Print sends the same word search to paper.
On the board and on paper
Most word search makers hand you a PDF and stop there. This one does both: the puzzle goes on the classroom board first, where the class works through it together, and only then to the printer.
Doing it together works differently from doing it alone. There is one grid and everybody is watching it, so a pupil who spots a word points at it and the rest see where it was. That is a good five minutes at the start of a lesson, or at the end when there is time left over.
On paper it is quiet work. Print a few for the pupils who finish early, or send one home with the spelling list. Turn Answers on before you print and you get the answer sheet with the words circled, so marking takes half a minute. Printing is free as well.
Which words to put in
This week's words are nearly always the best ones. The spelling pattern you are practising, the terms from the geography lesson, the animals from the topic: the puzzle is then a second pass over the same material rather than filler.
The names of the class work well too, especially in the first week of the year. Every pupil looks for themselves first and then for the rest, and learns to read the other names while they are at it.
Whatever you type in the box stays in your own browser. It is not sent anywhere and not kept on a server: the grid is put together here, on your own computer. "Clear words" empties the list in one go.
Spaces and hyphens are taken out, because one square holds one letter. So "North Holland" becomes NORTHHOLLAND, and that is how the class has to look for it.
When a word does not fit
A word longer than the grid is wide fits nowhere. That is said under the box before you press the button, so you can change the size rather than miss it later.
A word that is short enough can still be left out when the grid fills up. Twenty words in a small grid is asking too much. The word search is made anyway, with the words that did not make it listed underneath, and one size up is usually enough.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to make an account?
No. The word search works without signing in and without installing anything. You open the page, type your words and press the button. Printing works without an account too.
Where do the words I type end up?
In your own browser, on this computer. They are not sent anywhere and not kept on a server. That holds for the names of your class as well.
Can I print the word search?
Yes, with the Print button. The sheet is black on white, with a line for the name at the top, and goes through a photocopier without trouble. Turn Answers on before you print and you get the answer sheet with the words circled.
Can words run backwards?
Yes, if you choose that. On "Straight" the words only run left to right and top to bottom. "Also diagonal" adds the diagonals, and "Also backwards" lets a word run in all eight directions.
How many words can go in?
Between three and twenty. Below three it is not a puzzle, and above twenty the grid is more word than filler, so the class reads them off without searching.
Does it work on an interactive whiteboard?
Yes. Drag your finger from the first letter to the last, or tap the first letter and then the last one. The second way helps when you are standing beside the board and cannot reach along the whole word.
Do I get the same word search every time?
No. Every press lays the words out again and fills the empty squares again. So one list gives you two different word searches for two groups.
Does it cost anything?
Making the word search and solving it on the board is free and stays free, there are no adverts on it, and nothing is asked of you. The printed sheet carries our logo at the top and the address of this page at the foot. Nothing is printed across the puzzle itself.
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