puzzMedium printable word search for kids
Nine letters square, seven or eight words, and one important new thing: diagonals. A child who has been sweeping rows and columns has to add a second kind of scan, and the first diagonal find in a medium grid is usually accompanied by an indignant "that is not fair" followed by considerably more careful looking.
The words also get longer — up to eight letters — which cuts both ways. Longer words are harder to fit into a mental image but far easier to spot once you know to look for their length. This pack is where children start naturally reaching for the sensible strategy of hunting the longest word first, and it is worth pointing out to them if they have not.
What is in this pack
| Grid | 9x9 letters | |
|---|---|---|
| Words hidden | seven or eight per puzzle, three to eight letters each | |
| Directions | across, down and both forward diagonals | |
| Best for | ages 7-9, or a confident younger child who has finished the easy pack | |
- Four A4 pagesThree puzzles, then a full answer key. Print the first three only if you would rather keep the answers.
- One verified solution eachEvery puzzle is passed through a solver and discarded unless exactly one answer fits.
- No sign-up, no watermarkA direct PDF download. No email address, no account, nothing to dismiss.
- Free to photocopyUse them at home, in a classroom, at a childminder or in a holiday club.
Teaching tip. Diagonals are much easier to spot if you tilt the sheet rather than tilting your head. Turning the page forty-five degrees turns a diagonal scan into an ordinary horizontal one, and children find this trick delightful.
How to solve a word search
There is a method beyond staring, and children who learn it get dramatically faster.
- Read the word list firstLook at the list before touching the grid. Pick one word to hunt for rather than trying to spot all of them at once — searching for a single target is far faster than scanning for anything at all.
- Hunt the first letter, not the wordChoose the word you want, then sweep the grid for just its first letter. Every time you land on one, glance at the neighbouring letters to see whether the second letter follows. Most letters are ruled out in under a second.
- Start with the longest wordsLong words are much easier to spot and, once ringed, they cut the grid down for everything else. Working longest-first also means the hardest finds happen while the child is still fresh.
- Check every direction the grid allowsEasy grids hide words across and down only. Medium grids add both diagonals, and tricky grids also run words backwards, upwards and diagonally up. If a word will not appear, it is nearly always running in a direction the child has not thought to look in yet.
- Ring it and cross it offDraw a loop round each word in the grid and strike it off the list at the same time. Keeping the two in step stops the frustrating end-game of re-hunting a word that was already found.
Who this pack suits
Seven or eight words, and diagonals appear for the first time.
How the word search packs compare
| Word Search pack | Ages | What it asks of them |
|---|---|---|
| Easy, 7x7 | 5-7 | Five or six short words, across and down only. Nothing backwards, nothing diagonal. |
| Medium, 9x9 | 7-9 | Seven or eight words, and diagonals appear for the first time. |
| Tricky, 11x11 | 9-12 | Nine or ten longer words, running in all eight directions including backwards. |
| Themed packs | 5-9 | A single subject per pack — good for topic work, a party or a rainy afternoon. |
Questions about this pack
Do medium word searches include backwards words?
No — diagonals yes, backwards no. Words run across, down, and diagonally downward. Fully backwards words are held back for the tricky pack.
My child keeps missing the diagonal words. Any advice?
Have them do one deliberate diagonal sweep before starting: run a finger from the top-left corner down to the bottom-right, then repeat one column across. Once diagonals have been consciously looked at they stop being invisible.
How long should one of these take?
Around five to ten minutes for a child in the right age range. If they are still hunting after twenty minutes, the easy pack is a better fit for now.
Is there an answer sheet?
Yes — the fourth page of the pack shows all three grids again with every word ringed and labelled with its direction.
More free worksheets
Other word search packs
Other kinds of puzzle
See all 17 free worksheet packs.
Hundreds more of these in the app
Puzzeroo is an iPhone and iPad app with two hundred word search levels alongside three other puzzle types — eight hundred in total, all generated by the same verified engines that made this worksheet, all working fully offline with no adverts and no accounts. The worksheets and the app draw from completely separate puzzle ranges, so printing these gives nothing away.