Large print word search for every season

The rules

• The season is named above the grid, and eight of its words are listed below. All eight are hidden in the grid.
• A word may read left to right, top to bottom, or diagonally from upper left to lower right.
• No word is written backwards, and no word slants upwards.
• Words may share a letter where they cross. Each listed word is in the grid exactly once.

How to spot a word on the diagonal

This is the first page on the site with a slanting direction, and only one: down and to the right, like going down a staircase. If you have done the garden or kitchen word search, everything you did there still works, and there is one more place to look.

The simplest way to check a diagonal is from a single letter. Suppose you want FROST and you have found an F. Look at the letter to its right, then the letter below it, then the letter one step right and one step down. One of those three must be an R, or the word does not start here. When the diagonal neighbour is right, keep stepping: one across, one down, for each letter.

On paper, a ruler helps. Lay its edge from a letter towards the bottom right corner of the sheet and the diagonal line of letters sits along it, easy to read. Turning the sheet a little, so the diagonal runs level, does the same job.

A good order is rows first, then columns, then diagonals for whatever is left. In most grids only two or three of the eight words slant, so by the time you look for them the list is short and the looped words narrow down where they can be.

Tips for printing and playing

• The four seasons take turns from one puzzle number to the next. If today's is winter and you would like summer, press Next until it comes up.
• For a seasonal activity, note the numbers of the puzzles for the season you want and print those; the same number always gives the same grid.
• Month names such as OCTOBER and JANUARY are among the longer words and are usually the quickest to find.
• The words are British in flavour: conker, fete, sledge and bonfire all appear.
• Print with solution adds a second sheet with the eight words marked, which is handy when the diagonal ones prove stubborn.

How these puzzles are made and checked

A separate scan reads the finished grid from every cell in all eight directions. Every listed word must be found exactly once, at the stored position, and the grid must not spell a word from our deny list outside the listed words.

The puzzle of the day is chosen by the date on your device: puzzle 1 was the puzzle for 1 January 2026, and the number goes up by one each day. 366 puzzles, so the same puzzle comes round again after 366 days. Every number stays open in the archive control above the grid. More detail is on the page how the puzzles are made, checked and printed.