Word Search Maker
Enter your words, one per line. You get a letter grid with your words hidden in it, an answer key for the host, and checks counted again from the finished grid. Print the word search and the answer key separately, and copy the link to open the same word search later.
How the word search is made
Each word goes in a straight line across, down, or diagonally, forward or backward: 8 directions in all. Spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes are left out, and capital letters don't matter. Longer words go in first. Two words can share a square only where they cross and the letter is the same. The empty squares are then filled with random letters from A to Z.
Leave the grid size blank and the page starts from a size based on how many letters your words have, at least as wide as your longest word, and tries larger sizes up to 20 squares per side. You can also choose a size from 3 to 20. A word longer than the grid can't be placed, and the page says so. The page aims to place every word and have each one appear only once, and makes up to 10 tries at each size. When a word isn't placed or can be found more than once, the page tells you which.
The filler letters are random and aren't checked for words they might spell, including unwanted ones.
The seed sets the random choices. The same words, settings, and seed give the same word search, so a copied link opens the same one. This page uses version 1 of the word search rules.
What the checks count
After the word search is made, a separate count reads the finished grid and answer key again, starting from your word list. It checks that each answer spells its word on the grid, counts the words placed and the words without an answer, and checks that no two words share more than one square or share a square along the same line. Then it looks for every word in all 8 directions from every square and counts how many times each one can be found. A word that's inside a longer word, such as cat in cats, can be found more than once when both are placed, and the page shows that. A check shows Match only when its count equals the expected value.
Limits
You can enter up to 40 lines of words. A word needs at least 3 letters, and only the letters A to Z can go in the grid, so words with numbers or accented letters are pointed out and left out of the grid. The grid can be from 3 to 20 squares per side.
How the games are made and checked explains the checks and how links and versions work.