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WANT TO CREATE WORD SEARCH PUZZLES? CHECK FURTHER ON DOWN
Hidden Words
Word search puzzles are a timeless and engaging activity that combines fun with a mental challenge. Perfect for all ages, they encourage focus, concentration, and a keen eye for detail as you hunt for hidden words in a grid of letters. Whether you’re relaxing at home, traveling, or simply looking for a satisfying way to pass the time, word searches offer the perfect balance of entertainment and brain-boosting exercise. With themes ranging from hobbies and nature to favorite pastimes, there’s always something new to discover in the world of word search puzzles!
This word search puzzle page is on the theme of “noisy vehicles”. The words to be found include, “chopper”, “police car” and “go kart”. These words are all in the grid but they need to be picked out from all the other random letters in the grid. With some puzzles, the words to be found will all be written left to right but in some, more difficult puzzles, they may be 
written right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top or even diagonally. You can check out the Bumper Word Search Book for Adults on the theme of Autumn and Winter here.
Coloring Word Search Puzzles
One twist on word searches is the coloring word search. In this puzzle, you search for words and then color them in once found. These make for easy, relaxing puzzles for a leisurely break. As the 
letters in the grid need to be large to enable easy coloring, there are fewer rows and columns, which means the words need to be shorter. In this grid, some of the words are “feast”, “fire” and “frosty”, as this puzzle is on the theme of Christmas. You can check out a coloring word search book on the theme of sports here. These books often tend to be smaller in size and square in shape, making them easier to carry around for fun on the go.
Icon Word Search
Another variation on word searches are icon word searches. Icons are very small pictures, using a few simple lines to represent an item, idea or an object. An icon word search hides a group of icons in amongst other similar random icons. Finding the chosen “word” is done in exactly the same way as a regular word search but can be much more difficult.
Number search
Yet another variation is that of using numbers. The list of items to find will be a sequence of numbers, rather than letters and the object, again is to find the requested sequences within a grid of random numbers.
Creating Word Search Puzzle Books
In terms of creating word search puzzle books, the hardest part is collating a list of words on a particular theme. Of course, adding in the random letters to hide the words to be found could be difficult, however, most people use software for that and to create the whole book but you have to have the list of words available. I have used other people’s suggestions for finding words but I never get the perfect results I would like first time, so I am working on my own ways of compiling word lists.
These use the search engines (such as Google, Bing, Duck, Duck, Go and any others you know of) and also ChatGPT and Claude (and I would be willing to use any other AI tools that people have tried). I find that both of the AI tools run out of free allowances pretty quickly when generating and sorting word searches, so I switch between the two to be able to keep working.
It’s useful to create a large word list for the ordinary word search books. Smaller words can then be extracted from this main list for smaller books or books which use shorter words. I believe the best way of storing and manipulating these words is by using a spreadsheet.
Spreadsheets For Word Search Lists
Now don’t groan. Spreadsheets are not just for maths and you do not have to be a spreadsheet jockey to be able to use them. I promise there are no graphs involved, not for word searches anyway! If you have never heard of spreadsheets, I have created a video (11 minutes and 33 seconds) that gives an introduction to using a spreadsheet for gathering words for use in word searches.
Word Search on Hiking
The subject / theme I chose for a word search was HIKING. I perfectly understand and expect that any words printed here may be copied and used.
My first job when looking at a theme, is to find sub themes. A sub-theme is a smaller, more specific topic that supports or relates to the main theme. The sub themes I came up first with were: Hiking, Walking, Trekking, Camping, Equipment, Clothes, Mountains, Fells, Moors, Long distance, Country, Day walks, Trails and food. On looking at the list, fells, moors and mountains look like “places to hike” and I might use that as a sub theme and Hiking, Walking, Trekking, Long distance Day Walks and Trails look like one sub-theme too – possibly “types of hike”.
Sub-Theme to Spreadsheet – GO!
Now it’s time to put the sub themes into a spreadsheet and get some words. If you don’t use spreadsheets, you could find they are REALLY useful for collecting words.
I will collect words of ANY length (up to maximum 12 letters) because ordinary word searches can take longer words. The spreadsheet will sort out shorter words from a list and can also find duplicates. I use Excel, you can also use (free) Open Office or Google Sheets. There may be others. Here’s a video of how to use a spreadsheet to collect Words.
Put your subthemes across the top of the spreadsheet. (If you click on the picture, it should give you a larger version if you need to see it more closely.)
I have changed mine around a bit because I realised mountains, fells, etc were “Places to Hike” and day walks and trails, etc were “Types of hike”. You might sort them differently. I currently have six sub-themes, Camping, equipment, clothes, Places to hike, Types of hike and food. I would like at least 10 themes, so today, I am going to ask ChatGPT and Claude to help with sub-themes. I like getting a number of sub-themes because it makes it MUCH easier to collect enough words. You can add more sub-themes as you wish, as you go along.
This is the prompt I used: “I want to create a word search book about hiking. I have thought of some sub-themes for this – camping equipment clothes Places to hike Types of hike food Can you think of any other sub-themes I could use for hiking please?”
This is the response I got from ChatGPT:
“Here are some additional sub-themes for a hiking word search book:
Nature: Trees, plants, flowers, and wildlife commonly seen on hikes.
Weather: Types of weather hikers might encounter (e.g., sunny, windy, rainy).
Trail Features: Rivers, waterfalls, bridges, cliffs, caves, and other landmarks.
Safety and Survival: First aid items, navigation tools, and emergency tips.
Hiking Goals: Fitness benefits, mental health perks, or bucket-list hikes.
Seasons: Hiking during spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Hiking Groups: Solo hiking, family trips, guided tours, or club hikes.
Would you like help brainstorming words for any of these?”
I am going to add these to my spreadsheet, then say “yes please” and see what I get.
But first, I am going to add these sub-themes to my spreadsheet. Mostly, I can just copy and paste straight into the spreadsheet. 
Sometimes, instead of a list, one under the other, it copies as a sentence. Don’t panic, just hit control +Z and it will undo the last action. Now copy and paste your list into a plain text editor (such as notepad) and you should have a list of items one under the other than you can copy and paste to your spreadsheet. If it doesn’t paste as a list of words, one under the other, ask ChatGPT or Claude to rewrite the list so the words come one below the other.
I now have 15 sub-themes and more words. I may reduce the number of sub-themes, for instance, the safety and survival could go under equipment, which reminds me, I can add the word “compass” to equipment, oh, and maps and guides.
I said “Yes” to the question from ChatGPT on whether I would like help brainstorming words on these and asked it to list the words one below the other. It gave me a list of words in a single column, sorted by sub-theme. I just checked the sub-theme and copied and pasted the words given into a plain text notepad, then copied into my spreadsheet. Here are the words it listed:
Oak
Pine
Maple
Cedar
Birch
Fern
Moss
Ivy
Wildflower
Grass
Deer
Squirrel
Hawk
Rabbit
Bear
Sunny
Cloudy
Rain
Fog
Wind
Thunderstorm
Drizzle
Hail
Snow
Breezy
River
Stream
Lake
Waterfall
Cliff
Bridge
Cave
Canyon
Meadow
Ridge
Compass
Map
Whistle
Flashlight
Shelter
First Aid
Firestarter
Blanket
Water Bottle
Fitness
Peace
Adventure
Exploration
Escape
View
Summit
Trailhead
Challenge
Fresh Air
Bloom
Sprout
Bud
Rain
Green
Heat
Sun
Insects
Breeze
Shade
Leaves
Crisp
Gold
Acorn
Harvest
Snow
Frost
Chill
Icicle
Hibernate
Solo
Couple
Family
Club
Friends
Guide
Team
Partner
Leader
Backpacking
I now have well over a hundred words and it didn’t take more than a few minutes – it took longer to write down the process. I wrote down another sub-theme “sounds” because I found the word “fizzle”, the sound from a campfire.
I think this article is long enough and will continue the journey in the next one. Remember to check out the video on using a spreadsheet for collecting word search words.