How word searches work
The selection deliberately spans five continents and avoids the very shortest country names, since three and four letter entries hide poorly and tend to appear accidentally in the random filler. Everything here is at least six letters.
Two patterns are worth knowing. Several entries end in -A: CANADA, NIGERIA, JAMAICA, MONGOLIA. And two contain a rare consonant cluster worth targeting directly, the Q-free but distinctive URUGUAY with its double U and the V in VIETNAM. Hunt the rare letters, then work outward.
The grid regenerates every time you load the page, so the same theme never gives you the same arrangement twice. Words run in all eight directions including backwards and diagonally, and your fastest completion time for each grid size is saved in your browser.
The countries word list
| Word | Letters | Notable letters |
|---|---|---|
| BRAZIL | 6 | Z |
| CANADA | 6 | common letters only |
| FRANCE | 6 | common letters only |
| NIGERIA | 7 | common letters only |
| THAILAND | 8 | common letters only |
| MOROCCO | 7 | common letters only |
| BELGIUM | 7 | common letters only |
| URUGUAY | 7 | Y |
| FINLAND | 7 | common letters only |
| VIETNAM | 7 | V |
| ECUADOR | 7 | common letters only |
| JAMAICA | 7 | J |
| PORTUGAL | 8 | common letters only |
| MONGOLIA | 8 | common letters only |
How to find words faster
- Find the longest countries words first. THAILAND is the longest entry at 8 letters, and long words have far fewer possible placements than short ones. Clearing them early removes a disproportionate share of the grid.
- Target the uncommon letters in this list. The rare letters present here are J, V, Y, Z. Each one appears only a handful of times in the random filler, so finding the letter usually hands you the word.
- Leave BRAZIL until last. At 6 letters it is the shortest entry, which means it has the most possible positions on the grid and hides best. Short words are always the least efficient thing to hunt first.
- Read every candidate in both directions. Roughly half the placements in any grid are reversed. If an area looks empty, try reading it backwards before moving on.
Frequently asked questions
How many countries are in this puzzle?
Fourteen, deliberately spread across five continents. Very short country names are excluded because three and four letter words hide poorly and tend to appear in the random filler by accident.
Which country name is hardest to spot?
URUGUAY causes the most trouble. The repeated U pattern is unusual enough that people scan past it, and at seven letters it has more possible placements than the eight-letter entries.
Are country names spelled in English?
Yes, all entries use standard English spellings. PORTUGAL, MONGOLIA and VIETNAM all differ from their names in the local language, but the English forms are what appear in the grid.