How to make a hard printable word search that is still easy to read

A hard printable word search is mostly about direction. Once words can run backwards and up the page, you can no longer just read along the rows and wait for a word to jump out. A bigger grid and a longer list make it harder again, but they also make the letters smaller, so the trick is knowing which knob to turn.

The quick answer

In our free word search maker, set Difficulty to Hard. That gives you a 15 by 15 grid, 18 words between 4 and 13 letters long, and words that can run in all eight directions: across, down, both diagonals, and every one of those backwards. When you pick a theme, Hard also slips in a couple of long words of 9 letters or more.

The printed sheet tells the solver that words can go in any direction, including backwards. That one line saves a lot of grief. Without it, people often hunt left to right for ten minutes and assume the puzzle is broken.

What makes a word search hard

Backwards words are the big one. Our eyes are trained to read one way, so a word printed right to left, or from the bottom up, barely registers until you go looking for its first or last letter on purpose.

Diagonals come next. Medium already uses them, but only reading left to right. Hard adds the two diagonals that read right to left, so a word can start anywhere and head off at any angle.

Then there is size. A 15 by 15 grid has 225 letters to scan, against 100 on the Easy 10 by 10. A 20 by 20 grid, the largest the maker offers, has 400.

Longer lists add work too, though less than you might think. Finding the eighteenth word is easier than the first, because the letters you have already circled are out of the way.

The catch: harder usually means smaller letters

A printed page only has so much room. The grid shares it with the title, the instructions and the word list, so anything that adds rows to the grid or lines to the list leaves less space for each letter.

Under the preview, the maker shows roughly how tall the letters will print. Here is what it reports on US Letter paper with the Large letter setting, for two kinds of list. A list with a word longer than 9 letters prints in two columns instead of three, which takes more height.

The maker calls anything from 30 pt up nice and large. Below about 22 pt it suggests a smaller grid. Look at the two columns, though. Cutting the list from 18 words to 12 does more for letter size than dropping a couple of grid sizes.

The figures are the maker’s own estimates. Your printer’s scaling settings can change them a little.

Harder without shrinking the print

If the solver needs big letters, keep the grid small and let the directions do the work. A 12 by 12 grid on Hard with a dozen words still has backwards and diagonal words in it, and the letters still print at about 26 pt.

Your own word list is the other lever. Choose My own words, type one word per line, and think about how the words look rather than what they mean. Words that share letters are harder to tell apart in a grid. A list of birds such as ROBIN, ORIOLE, OSPREY and HERON puts plenty of O, R and E in play, so the eye keeps catching false starts.

Long words feel like they should be easy. They are often the last ones found on Hard, because a 12-letter word running backwards up a diagonal looks nothing like the word on the list.

You can also hide the list. Fold the bottom of the sheet back before handing it over and tell people only how many words there are and the theme. That turns it into a guessing game as well as a search, and it costs nothing in letter size.

One thing to avoid: a short word that sits inside a longer one on the same list, like STAR and START. People find STAR inside START, circle it, and then can’t find START. It is fair, but it tends to cause arguments.

If it turns out too hard

Switch to Medium. Words still run diagonally, but nothing is backwards, and that alone makes a big difference for most people. The maker also changes the grid to 13 by 13 and the list to 12 words when you change the level, so check the size box if you had set your own.

For a group with mixed abilities, you can print the same theme at two levels. Make the Hard version, then switch to Medium and press Make puzzle again. Each press builds a new layout, so you will want to print each answer key along with its own puzzle.

For a solver who is just starting out, the easy printable word search guide covers the gentlest settings.

A few printing notes

Tick Show answer key and it prints on its own page, with the hidden words shaded. On a hard puzzle you will want it. If you want to keep the puzzle and its key together, save the word search as a PDF from the print window.

A4 paper is a little taller than Letter, so the same puzzle usually gets slightly bigger letters on A4. Adding the name and date line takes a little height away. For more on picking levels and themes, see our guide to printable word searches for adults. If you would rather solve on a screen, you can play word searches online and drag across a word, or tap its first and last letter, to mark it.

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