Use the arrow keys to move between letters. Press Enter or Space on the first letter of a word, then again on the last letter. Press Escape to cancel.
A few of the words
- DIRECTORY
- Before online searches, the telephone directory was a thick paper book delivered to every doorstep, and finding a number meant flipping through hundreds of tissue-thin pages.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
- ROTARY
- The rotary dial was introduced on telephone sets in the United States beginning in 1919, gradually replacing the need to ask a live operator to place every local call.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
- BELL
- Alexander Graham Bell is credited with receiving the first US patent for the telephone in 1876, though rival inventors contested the claim for years afterward.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
- OPERATOR
- In small-town America, the local telephone operator often knew every subscriber by voice, and was sometimes the quickest way to spread important news across a community.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
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telephone word search
The Telephone: a free large-print word search
The Telephone, free large-print word search evoking rotary dials, party lines, and the satisfying click of a cradle.
About The Telephone
Before speed dial and smartphones, calling someone meant lifting a heavy handset, pressing it to your ear, and listening for the operator's calm voice asking how she could connect you. The rotary dial clicked with a satisfying mechanical heft as your finger pulled each number around and released it. Party lines meant two families shared one wire, and the kitchen wall phone, its long coiled cord stretching into the next room, was the center of household news.
How to play
- 1Find a word.Tap its first letter, then tap along to its last. The trail fills in and finishes itself when it spells a word. Or press the first letter and drag.
- 2Words run in straight lines.Across and down, and on the harder difficulties diagonally and backwards.
- 3It marks itself.Each word you find takes on its own soft colour on the grid and is crossed off the list.
- 4Choose a difficulty.Relaxed, Classic or Challenging set those directions and how much the word list helps, never the grid size. Tap the A buttons at the top to enlarge the letters, or pinch the grid.

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