How word searches work
The fruit list runs from the everyday — a banana, an apple's worth of cherries and grapes — through to the tropical: papaya, mango, coconut, kiwi. Fruit names have an unusual number of repeated letters, which makes this grid harder than it looks: BANANA, PAPAYA and COCONUT all contain the same letter three times.
STRAWBERRY and PINEAPPLE are the long anchors. KIWI is short but carries a K and a W, so it is easier than its length suggests. FIG is three letters and will be found last.
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 fruit word list
| Word | Letters | Notable letters |
|---|---|---|
| PINEAPPLE | 9 | common letters only |
| MANGO | 5 | common letters only |
| BANANA | 6 | common letters only |
| STRAWBERRY | 10 | W, Y |
| KIWI | 4 | K, W |
| PAPAYA | 6 | Y |
| CHERRY | 6 | Y |
| APRICOT | 7 | common letters only |
| COCONUT | 7 | common letters only |
| GRAPES | 6 | common letters only |
| BLUEBERRY | 9 | Y |
| LEMON | 5 | common letters only |
| PEACH | 5 | common letters only |
| FIG | 3 | common letters only |
How to find words faster
- Find the longest fruit words first. STRAWBERRY is the longest entry at 10 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 K, W, Y. Each one appears only a handful of times in the random filler, so finding the letter usually hands you the word.
- Leave FIG until last. At 3 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 fruits are in the puzzle?
Fourteen, from common to tropical. Because several names are long, the ten by ten grid may leave one out, and the word list only shows what was placed.
Why are the fruit words so hard to spot?
Repeated letters. BANANA, PAPAYA and COCONUT each use one letter three times, and repeated letters read as random filler at a glance. It is a genuinely trickier grid than the animal or bird lists.
Which fruit is hardest to find?
FIG. Three letters, all common, and no repeated letter to anchor on. Three-letter words have more possible positions than anything else on a board and are always found last.