Fernword Search is a word search with twelve themed packs: woodland, mushrooms, birds, trees, wildflowers, pond life, weather, insects, tea time, baking, night sky and autumn. Each pack holds ten real English words between four and nine letters long, all of them friendly for every age. Some packs feel like a walk in the woods; others, like baking and tea time, feel more like an afternoon in a warm kitchen.
Words can run across, down, up, backwards or along any diagonal. Drag over the letters to select one; found words are wrapped in a rounded coloured capsule and struck through in the list. A timer runs as you search, and stars are awarded for how quickly you clear the grid. The faster you finish, the more stars you collect, but nothing stops you taking your time and simply enjoying the hunt.
How to play Fernword Search
- Choose a themed pack on the start screen, or pick the Daily glade pack chosen by today’s date.
- Read the list of ten words beside the grid so you know what you are hunting for.
- Drag across the letters from the first to the last of a word, in any of eight directions.
- Found words get a coloured capsule on the grid and are struck through on the list.
- Use up to three hints to flash a word’s first letter, then clear the grid for your stars.
Fernword Search controls
Getting better at Fernword Search
- Look for unusual letters and double letters first; they often give a word away almost instantly.
- Scan for words backwards as well as forwards; reversed words are easy to look straight past.
- Take each long word first, because short ones are easier to find once the grid has filled with capsules.
- Save your three hints for the last stubborn words rather than spending them in the opening minute.
- Run your eye along each diagonal in turn when you are stuck; diagonals hide words most cleverly.
Twelve packs written by hand for the glade
We wrote every word list ourselves. Each pack keeps to a single theme, so finding one word nudges you towards the next: once you are thinking about mushrooms or birds, your eyes start hunting for the shapes of those words. Tea time and baking are cosy favourites, and night sky is a quiet joy late in the evening.
The Daily glade pack is picked from the date, so everyone sees the same pack on the same day. It makes a gentle morning ritual, and a nice thing to compare over breakfast. Try playing it before checking anything else in the morning; it is a calmer way to wake up the brain.
A grid that fits the screen in your hand
On a desktop or a wide tablet the grid is 11x11. On a narrow phone screen it shrinks to 9x9 and uses fewer or shorter words, so the letters stay large enough to drag across with a thumb.
We made this choice so the game feels right rather than cramped. A word search should be about spotting, not squinting, and a smaller grid with crisp letters is more fun on a phone than a big one with tiny ones. Dragging a capsule around a word with your thumb on the train home is exactly the experience we were building towards, and the 9x9 grid makes it comfortable.
Questions about Fernword Search
All eight: left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, and along all four diagonals. Diagonal and backwards words tend to be the last ones standing.
You have three hints per round. Each one briefly flashes the first letter of a word you still need to find. Use them sparingly; they are most valuable for the final stubborn word.
It is one of the twelve packs, chosen automatically from today’s date, so there is a fresh suggestion every day. Everyone who plays on the same day sees the same pack.
