Moames

Fern Word Search

Play today's daily puzzle →

About Fern Word Search

Fern Word Search is a free word search game with 30 themed puzzles and a new one every day. Find animals, fruit, planets, birds and more hidden in a grid of letters, reading across, down, diagonally and backwards. Play online on desktop or mobile, or print any puzzle to solve on paper.

How to play

  1. Drag across a word in the grid to select it. On a phone you can also tap its first letter and then its last.
  2. Words can run across, down, diagonally or backwards, depending on the level.
  3. Found words are coloured in the grid and crossed off the list under it.
  4. Find every word on the list to clear the level. Hint circles the first letter of a word you still need.

How to play word search

Each puzzle hides a set of words on one theme, such as birds, the ocean or things in a kitchen, in a square grid of letters. The list under the grid shows every word to find. A word always runs in a straight line with no gaps, so once you spot the first two letters together you know which way the rest of it goes. Drag from the first letter to the last to circle it, and the selection snaps to the nearest straight line as you move. You can start from either end, so a backwards word can be dragged in reading order. Every word appears exactly once, and the letters around the words are random, so there are no trick duplicates.

How the 30 levels get harder

Level 1 is an 8×8 grid with six words that only read left to right or top to bottom. The grid grows a row and a column every few levels, up to 14×14, and the list grows to fourteen words. From level 7 words can also run diagonally, from level 15 they can run right to left or bottom to top, and from level 23 they can go in all eight directions, including diagonally backwards. Each level has its own theme, so the first thirty levels cover thirty different topics before any theme comes round again.

Word search tips

Start with the longest words, because they cross more of the grid and are easier to spot. Look for unusual letters too: a Q, Z, X, J or K stands out among common letters, and only a few words on the list will use one. Another method is to pick a word, take its first letter, and check the eight squares around every copy of that letter in the grid for the second letter. Words often share letters where they cross, so a found word can point you to the next one. On the harder levels, scan each row right to left and each column bottom to top as well, since backwards words are easy to miss.

Printable word search puzzles

Every puzzle can be printed. Press Print and your browser opens its print window with a clean black and white page: the theme as a title, the grid in large letters, and the word list with a tick box beside each word. It suits classrooms, waiting rooms and anyone who prefers a pencil. The page fits on one sheet of letter or A4 paper, and the daily puzzle prints just as well as the levels. Your progress in the online game is not affected by printing.

The daily word search

Fern Word Search is part of the daily puzzles. Every day brings one new grid on a random theme, the same for every player, starting with a small grid on Monday and growing toward the larger, trickier grids at the weekend. Your first finish of the day sets your time for sharing, and Hint adds to your count, so try a few more scans before you use one. Levels unlock as you clear them, and you can go back to any level you have reached with the arrows.

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