How to play Sudoku Word Search
Every Sudoku Word Search is a sudoku — but not with numbers. Each grid uses a fixed alphabet of nine letters, printed above the grid. As in any sudoku, every row, every column, and every 3×3 box must contain all nine letters exactly once.
Here is the twist that makes it a word search. The letters you are given never pin down a single answer on their own; the starting grid is deliberately ambiguous. What breaks the tie is the word list. Every word printed beneath the grid appears exactly once in the finished puzzle, reading in a straight line — across, down, or diagonally, in any of the eight directions — just as in a word search. These hidden words are not a prize to find at the end. They are clues. They are the only thing that makes the solution unique.
So you solve on two fronts at once. Ordinary sudoku logic narrows the letters a cell can hold. When that logic stalls — and on these puzzles it will — turn to the words. Ask where a word could possibly fit: its letters, in order, along some line. Often there is only one place it can go, and dropping it in forces letters that sudoku alone could never settle. Each placement feeds the next round of deductions.
You are finished when every row, column, and box holds all nine letters, and every listed word sits in the grid exactly once.
Playing here
- Tap or click a cell, then tap a letter (or type one) to fill it. Tap the same letter again, or press Backspace, to clear it.
- Toggle Pencil marks to jot the candidates for a cell.
- The board flags a letter that repeats in a row, column, or box, so you can catch mistakes early.
- As you complete a hidden word, it gets crossed off the list.
- Stuck? Hint reveals the next logical move and explains it.
Working from a printed book and stuck on one? Every puzzle has a short code beside it — enter it on the Stuck? page for a full step-by-step walkthrough.