How to Choose Good Words for a Word Search

The best word search lists have 8 to 20 words on one clear theme, a mix of short and long words, no near-duplicates, and no words that hide inside each other more than once. Good lists also avoid two words that are each other spelled backward unless you’re making a Hard puzzle. This guide explains each rule, with examples of lists that work and lists that cause trouble.

Start with a theme someone cares about

A list of random words is a chore. A list about your garden, this week’s spelling words or the guests at your party is a small gift. Before writing words, write one sentence: “This puzzle is about ___ for ___.” Then every word should fit that sentence.

Strong themes are specific:

• Not “animals” but “animals at our local zoo.”
• Not “food” but “what we’re cooking for Thanksgiving.”
• Not “science” but “Unit 4: ecosystems.”

Our puzzles by theme show how four lists on one topic can each take a different angle — the garden topic has flowers, vegetables, tools and trees.

How many words?

Words	Feels like	Typical grid
5–7	A quick warm-up	8×8 to 10×10
8–14	A satisfying single puzzle	10×10 to 15×15
15–20	A long sit-down puzzle	15×15 to 20×20
21–40	A marathon (and a big grid)	20×20 to 25×25

The maker on this site accepts 3 to 40 words. For printed worksheets, 10 to 15 is the sweet spot.

Mix word lengths

• Long words (8+ letters) are easy to spot and fun to find first.
• Medium words (5–7) are the backbone.
• Short words (2–4) are surprisingly hard — three letters can appear by chance.

A list of all short words is frustrating; all long words, too easy. Aim for a spread.

Spelling and display

Grids only use A–Z. The maker removes spaces, hyphens and apostrophes and simplifies accents, then shows you both versions:

• “Ice cream” → ICECREAM
• “Jack-o’-lantern” → JACKOLANTERN
• “Café” → CAFE

The printed word list shows what you typed, so solvers read “Ice cream” and find ICECREAM. Characters that can’t become A–Z — digits, emoji, letters like ß or ø — are flagged on their line so you can choose a spelling. Numbers can be spelled out: “Route 66” → “Route Sixty-Six.”

Traps to avoid (and how the maker handles them)

Duplicates

“Wave” and “wave” are the same word. The maker lists duplicates with their line numbers and offers a one-click Remove duplicate words.

Words hiding inside other words

If your list has CAT and CATALOG, CAT appears inside CATALOG. That’s allowed only if CAT appears nowhere else — the maker places CAT inside CATALOG so there’s exactly one answer. Selecting CAT’s letters inside CATALOG counts as finding CAT.

Problems arise when the short word fits inside the long one more than once. AN appears four ways inside BANANA (forward twice, backward twice). There’s no way to give AN exactly one answer, so the maker asks you to remove one.

Words that are each other backward

LIVE and EVIL, STAR and RATS, DRAW and WARD. If both are in your list, each one appears in the other’s spot read backward — two answers each. The only fair solution is for them to share one path, which needs backward reading to be allowed. So:

• On Hard, the maker gives the pair one shared path; finding it marks both words.
• On Easy or Medium, it explains the conflict and offers to switch to Hard or remove a word.

Palindromes

LEVEL, RADAR and KAYAK read the same both ways. That’s fine — the maker counts a palindrome’s path once, not twice.

Words that make puzzles fun

• Distinctive letters: Q, Z, X, J, K make words easy to anchor (QUIZ, JAZZ, KAYAK).
• Double letters: BALLOON, COFFEE, PUZZLE.
• Compound phrases: “Hot chocolate,” “Snow globe” — long, satisfying finds.
• Names (for personal puzzles): guests, pets, places, inside jokes.

Words to think twice about

• Very common short words like THE, AND, ARE: they may show up in filler by chance. The maker removes accidental extra copies, but they’re dull to find.
• Private details if you’ll share a link: anyone with the link can read the list.
• Words that are hard to spell for your audience, unless spelling is the point.

Lists for different audiences

The same theme needs different words for different solvers.

• Young children (about 5–7): short, concrete, familiar words they can read aloud — CAT, SUN, BOAT, TREE. Six to ten words. Avoid silent letters unless you’re practicing them.
• Older children: a mix of everyday and new words from what they’re studying. Ten to fifteen words, including two or three long ones to find first.
• Language learners: words already introduced in class, grouped by topic. Concrete nouns before abstract ones. See word searches for English language learners.
• Adults: specialist vocabulary and longer words. Names of things they love — grape varieties, football clubs, constellations — make the hunt personal.
• Older adults and large print solvers: familiar words on a cheerful topic, 10–14 of them, so the grid stays small enough for 18-point letters.

A method for building a list

1. Brainstorm 25–30 words on your theme without judging them.
2. Cut anything off-theme. Use your one-sentence test.
3. Cut near-duplicates. Keep BAKE or BAKING, not both, unless you want one inside the other.
4. Balance lengths. Make sure you have some long, some medium and a few short words.
5. Add one or two anchors — words with Q, Z, X, J or K, or with double letters.
6. Trim to your target count. Ten to fifteen for a worksheet, up to twenty for a longer puzzle.
7. Read the list aloud. If a word makes you hesitate about spelling or meaning, decide whether that’s the point.

For school units, the glossary at the end of the chapter is often the perfect starting list.

How word choice changes difficulty

Difficulty settings control directions, but your words matter just as much:

• Words that share letters — STREAM, STEAM, TEAMS — create many near-misses, because filler partly reuses letters from your list.
• Words with common letters only (E, T, A, O, I, N, S) blend into the grid.
• Rare letters make words easy to anchor and quick to find.
• Long words are easier than short ones, which can occur by chance in the filler and need careful checking.

So if a puzzle is too hard for its audience, you can make it easier without touching the settings: swap a couple of short words for longer ones and add an anchor word.

Words for hidden message puzzles

In a hidden message puzzle, the words and the message compete for space. Long words use up more of the grid, leaving fewer squares for the message. If the maker says the message doesn’t fit, you can shorten the message, remove a long word, or choose a bigger grid. Words that cross each other help too, because shared letters free up squares.

A pre-generation checklist

• One clear theme, stated in a sentence
• 8–20 words for most puzzles (3–40 allowed)
• Each word 2–25 letters after removing spaces and punctuation
• A spread of lengths, with at least one anchor word
• No accidental duplicates
• No word that fits inside another more than once
• No reverse pairs unless you’ll use Hard
• Nothing private if you’ll share a link

Frequently asked

Can I use phrases? Yes. Spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are removed in the grid, and the list shows the phrase as you typed it.

What’s the longest word I can use? Twenty-five letters after cleanup, which is also the largest grid size. In practice, keep words shorter than your grid so they can run in more than one direction.

Can I use names and places? Yes — they’re often the most fun words to find. Spell them the way the solver will expect.

What about words in other languages? Words written in the A–Z alphabet work once accents are removed. Other scripts can’t appear in the grid.

Examples

A list that works (Backyard Birds, Medium): Robin, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Sparrow, Finch, Chickadee, Wren, Woodpecker, Hummingbird, Mockingbird, Nuthatch, Oriole, Junco, Starling. Fourteen words, lengths 4 to 11, with easy anchors like the J in JUNCO and the CK in CHICKADEE and MOCKINGBIRD, and one clear theme.

A list that needs fixes: Star, Rats, Arts, Tars, Banana, An, Sun, Sunny. Four anagrams (STAR/RATS reversed), AN inside BANANA four ways, SUN inside SUNNY. The maker will flag each and suggest fixes.

Keep the finished list somewhere you can reuse it: the maker can save the puzzle in your browser or export it as a file, so next time you only need to edit a few words.

Try it

Paste your list into the word search maker and read its notes before generating — it tells you exactly how each word will appear in the grid. For a full walkthrough, see how to make a word search with your own words.