Word Search Maker

How to use the word search maker

1. Type your words, one per line, and give the puzzle a title. Spaces and punctuation are removed in the grid, so two-word answers are hidden as one string of letters.
2. Set the grid size from 8 to 25 and pick the directions: easy (right and down), medium (adds a diagonal) or hard (all eight directions, including backwards).
3. Choose whether to print the word list and an answer key. The list is sorted alphabetically with a tick box beside each word.
4. Check the preview. If a message says some words did not fit, make the grid larger, remove words or choose more directions.
5. Press Download PDF or Print. The puzzle code under the options recreates the exact same puzzle later.

How the words are placed

The grid starts empty. Words are placed from longest to shortest, because long words have the fewest legal positions. For each word the tool lists every starting cell and direction where the word would stay inside the grid and every letter it touches is either empty or already the same letter, then picks one of those positions at random. Words may cross by sharing a letter but can never overwrite a different letter.

If a word has no legal position, the tool tries again with the words in a different order, up to 30 times, and keeps the arrangement that placed the most words. Anything still unplaced is named in a message instead of being quietly left out, so the printed word list always matches what is in the grid.

Empty cells are then filled with random letters. A last check scans the grid for every listed word in the directions you allowed. If random fill accidentally made a listed word appear a second time, the fill is redrawn so each answer has one place to be found. Palindromes such as LEVEL read the same both ways in the backwards directions and are handled accordingly.

Choosing size and difficulty

A grid needs room. As a rule of thumb, a 15 by 15 grid holds about 15 to 20 ordinary words comfortably, and a 25 by 25 grid holds the full limit of 40. A word cannot be longer than the grid is wide. Short grids with many long words may fail to place everything, and the tool will tell you.

Easy puzzles read left to right or top to bottom, which suits young children and new readers. Medium adds one diagonal. Hard allows every direction including backwards and upside down, so the words are much harder to spot. For classrooms, mixing the same word list at two levels lets one class work at different paces.

Using the puzzle

Print on plain paper for classroom handouts or use cardstock for party favors. The answer key shades every letter that belongs to a word and grays the filler letters, so a teacher can check a puzzle at a glance. Because the puzzle code controls the random choices, you can reprint the same puzzle later or share the word list and code with a colleague.

The tool works on letters A to Z only. Accented letters are converted to their plain forms, so cafe and café become the same hidden word, and anything else, such as numbers or non-Latin scripts, is dropped from the grid text.

Assumptions and limits

• Only the 26 letters A to Z appear in the grid. Accents are removed, and digits, punctuation and other alphabets are not supported.
• Words that end up written on top of each other share letters where they match. That is normal for word searches but means a word may be partly hidden by another.
• Up to 40 words, and no word longer than the grid size. Repeated words are counted once.
• The puzzle code only repeats a puzzle when the word list, size and direction choice are also unchanged.
• Offensive or accidental words can appear in random filler letters. Check the finished grid before handing it to children.

Formulas reviewed October 10, 2026. See the calculation methodology for how SumPanda rounds, tests and sources its formulas.

Frequently asked questions