Word Search Redux

You know: those draw-a-loop-around-the-word puzzles, where the word you're looking for is hidden in a forest of letters and might be there backwards or forwards or diagonally, even? Also called "Word Find." Want a more interactive illustration? Click on over to the Fundamental Physics of Space Word Search and Find for a quick taste of this rather remarkable game - considering all the educational uses it gets. Give yourself a few minutes, then come back here and click this.

This is a game called "Letter Lasso. And it's a word find/search puzzle, all right. And it's undoubtedly interactive. More interactive than you'd expect. So interactive that it redefines the whole word seagoing-finding experience. Because after you find a word, the word disappears and the adjacent rows and columns shift to fill in the space. So almost the whole puzzle changes every time you find a word. And it's timed. And the sooner you find the word, the higher the score. And if you wait long enough, you get a hint. So you can't play exactly like you'd play a paper word search and find. Which is what's really new and playworthy about this game. And you can choose different subjects, like: philosophy, nutrition, rock climbing.

After playing it a while, you may begin to get intrigued with the whole art and science of solving word find/search puzzles. In that case, you should definitely try this "Take Ten online, make-your-own-search-and-find-word-puzzle tool. After you enter your words, be sure to look at a lot of the different possible arrangements of those words the computer can devise. You will be enlightened and amused, in a word-search-findish way.