These are my all-time favorite websites to visit for word games. You’ll find word searches, crossword puzzles, and cryptic crossword puzzles.
Free Word Search Sites
Unique Difficulty Levels
- Easy to expert difficulty. Expert makes you find words without knowing what to look for.
- Play with numbers instead of words
- Bing font and no distracting ads.
(If you like unique games, check out this 20+ word game pack on Etsy.)
Hundreds of Themes
- Many, many themes. TV shows, movies, animals, celebrities, and others.
- Lots of customization, like board size, difficulty, upper or lower case letters, if reversed words are allowed, font size, etc.
- For help, click a word to see it’s starting letter on the board.
- Download or print the game for offline play.
Big, Unique Words
- Clean design with an obvious timer as you play.
- Options for other languages like Spanish, French, German, Polish, and more.
- Longer and more random words than your typical word search.
Choose the Category and Difficulty
- Very large font, fun sound effects, and you can change the background.
- You pick the difficulty (the number of words you need to find).
- Provides dozens of themed puzzles. Includes auto-solving if you need it, plus a scoreboard.
New Game Every Day
- Daily free games, your choice of four difficulty levels.
- Campaign version where you complete games and move on like a video game.
- Fun themed puzzles, like for holidays, colors, clothes, emotions, art, movies, and natural wonders.
Daily Games With Hints
- Daily hard puzzle with a meta solution at the end.
- Provides hints for where letters are or where entire words are hidden.
- Lets you play past day’s puzzles.
Timed, But Easier Games
- Difficulty levels up through Expert, but they’re still fairly easy.
- Includes sound effects and a timer.
- Few themes, and you see ads before each game.
Free Crossword Puzzle Sites
Play With Friends
- Fun space cat themes.
- Play and compete with friends for most words found. Also supports chat.
- Edit puzzle difficulty and size.
40k Puzzles
- “World’s largest supply of crossword puzzles.”
- Show errors, solve letters and whole words.
- Simple website with 40,000 puzzles.
The Washington Post
- Daily crossword puzzles from the Washington Post.
- The same one you’d see in the newspaper.
- Play with a friend by sharing a link.
Dictionary.com
- Easy daily games. Play today’s or a past day’s game.
- Very direct definitions.
- Lots of settings you can customize (timer, text size, sound).
Always Fresh Puzzles
- Many contributors with 15 puzzles added daily.
- Full screen mode.
- Can show errors as you play.
Print to Play Offline
- These are meant to be played on paper.
- Puzzles are added monthly.
- Each puzzle is a PDF, so they can also be drawn on if you have the right software.
Free Cryptic Crossword Puzzle Sites
If you’re not sure how to solve a cryptic crossword, check out my beginner’s guide.
Lovatts Puzzles
- Play any puzzle from the last week, updated daily.
- Hints are provided that will reveal a whole word or single letter for any clue.
The Globe and Mail Puzzles
- Puzzles can be printed or played online.
- Can reveal any letter.
- Includes a ‘pencil’ to add letters you’re not sure about.
Fisher Huntz 