Hard

Free hard word searches

Every puzzle here can be played hard. Switch to the Challenging level and the words run in every direction, backwards and diagonally included, with only the first couple of letters of each one shown to guide you. The grid stays large print the whole time, because harder should never mean harder to see. Free to play in your browser or print.

The challenge comes from the hiding, not a smaller grid

Plenty of sites make a word search “hard” by shrinking the letters until you want a magnifying glass. We do the opposite. Every puzzle keeps the same roomy, large-print grid, and the difficulty comes from how the words are placed and how much the list gives away. On Challenging they run in all eight directions, backwards as often as forwards, and the list shows only the first two letters, so you are reading the grid rather than ticking off a list.

Want to ease off? Every puzzle has three levels. Classic keeps the diagonals and the backwards words but shows the full list, and on the gentler Relaxed level, words run only across and down. The letters stay large at every one, and each level draws its own selection of the puzzle’s words, so stepping up is a fresh solve rather than the same grid again.

Frequently asked