Our free daily · new every day Findish A word search with a new theme every day Play Word Hunt gives you a clue and then drops the letters past you. Catch the ones you need in the right order and the answer forms. Miss them and they are gone.
Almost every other word game lets you think for as long as you like. This one does not, and that changes which part of your vocabulary is being tested. Knowing the word is not enough here, you have to retrieve it while something is moving.
Clues rotate through themes, food, animals, places, and general knowledge, so each round starts from a different corner of your memory.
How to play Word Hunt
A clue appears at the top and letters begin to fall from above.
- Tap or click a falling letter to add it to your answer.
- Letters must be taken in the order the word needs them.
- Anything that reaches the bottom is gone for that pass.
- Complete the word before the round expires to score it.
- Rounds get faster as you go, with a new clue each time.
The themes
Each clue belongs to a category, which is doing more work than it appears. Knowing you are looking for an animal cuts the space of possible answers to something your memory can search quickly.
Read the theme before you read the clue. It is a half second that pays for itself.
Speed ramping
The letters fall faster the longer you survive. That is the whole difficulty curve, and it means late rounds are not harder words, they are the same words with less time.
Tips and strategy
Decide the answer before you touch anything
The most common failure is starting to grab letters while still thinking about the clue. You catch a plausible first letter, the word turns out to be something else, and now you are holding a wrong start.
Take the extra beat. Commit to a word, then collect it. A clean run at a decided answer beats a scramble at an undecided one.
Watch the field, not the letter
Your eye wants to follow the letter you are about to tap. That is exactly when the next one you need slips past.
Keep your attention on the whole column of falling letters and let your finger do the tapping. It feels wrong for about a minute and then it feels obvious.
Short answers are safer under pressure
When the speed is high and a clue admits more than one answer, take the shortest one that fits.
Three letters caught is a completed round. Seven letters attempted with two missed is nothing at all, and at high speed the difference between those outcomes is entirely down to length.
Recover rather than restart
Missing a letter does not end the round. The letters keep coming, and the one you need will usually appear again.
Players who mentally give up on a word the moment they miss a letter lose far more rounds than the game takes from them.
Themes repeat, so learn them
Play a few runs and you will see the same categories cycle. The answers within a theme cluster around the same small set of common words.
That is not a flaw, it is a way to get better. Recognising the theme quickly effectively gives you a shortlist before the clue has finished registering.
What it actually trains
This is a recall speed exercise dressed as a game. The vocabulary demand is low and the retrieval demand is high, which is the opposite of a crossword.
If you find crosswords easy but struggle here, that gap is the point of the game rather than a sign you are bad at it.
The first three rounds set the run
Runs here tend to be decided early, and not because the early rounds are worth more. They are slow, which makes them the place where you either establish a rhythm or start improvising.
Use the slow rounds to practise the sequence you want at speed. Read the theme, read the clue, decide the word, then start tapping. Doing it deliberately when there is plenty of time builds the habit that survives when there is not.
Players who race through the opening rounds because they are easy arrive at the fast section with no rhythm at all, and that is where the run ends.
There is a second reason to slow down at the start. The clue categories that appear early are usually the ones that come back later, so the shortlist you build in the first minute is the shortlist you will be drawing on when the letters are falling too fast to think.
Other timed word games here
Word Hunter is the untimed search version, 4 Pics 1 Word tests the same recall without the clock, and Circus Words mixes both. More in word and skill.
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Orientation
Built for a landscape screen. On a phone, turn the device sideways.
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Frequently asked questions
How does Word Hunt work?
A clue appears and letters fall down the screen. You tap the letters you need, in order, before they reach the bottom.
What happens if I miss a letter?
Nothing final. The letters keep falling and the one you need usually comes round again, so a missed tap is not a lost round.
Does the game get harder?
The letters fall faster as you survive. The words themselves stay in the same range, so the difficulty is entirely about time.
Are the clues themed?
Yes, they cycle through categories such as food, animals and places. Reading the theme before the clue narrows the search considerably.
Any advice for high speed rounds?
Decide on the answer before touching anything, and take the shortest word that fits the clue. A completed short answer beats an attempted long one.
Is Word Hunt free?
Yes, free in the browser with no download and no account.