This hard word search starts on our toughest level, Expert: 15 words hidden in a 16 × 16 grid of 256 letters. Words run across, down, diagonally and backwards, in all eight directions, and many of them cross each other.

Why Expert is hard

A bigger grid: 256 letters to scan instead of the usual 144.
More words: 15 to find, and longer ones fit, up to 16 letters.
All eight directions, so a word can read right to left or bottom to top.
The empty squares are filled with the most common letters of English, which makes false starts easy.

How to play

Choose one of 21 themes. Find a word from the list and drag from its first letter to its last; on a phone, tap the first and the last letter. Found words are crossed off and the timer shows your time for the whole grid, so you can try to beat it next time.

A method for big grids

Pick the word with the rarest letter first and search only for that letter.
Go through the grid row by row and check all eight directions from every match.
Cross words off in your head as you go: the longer ones often hide the short ones.

Want it a bit easier? Switch to Hard (14 × 14) or Medium at the top, or play the Difficult Word Search. Every grid can be printed with a separate answer key.