How to find more words in a letter grid

These techniques work in Wordnook and in any game where you connect neighboring letters. They are the habits that experienced players develop without noticing, written down.

Updated 2026-10-23

1. Look for common endings first

A huge share of English words end in the same few letters. When you see an S, a D, an R or a G near the edge of a cluster, check whether it can finish a word.

• -S and -ES make plurals: TRAIN becomes TRAINS.
• -ED and -ER turn verbs into other forms: WALK, WALKED, WALKER.
• -ING is the longest common ending. If you see I, N and G touching in order, look at the letters around them for a verb.
• -LY turns many adjectives into adverbs: QUICK becomes QUICKLY.

2. Learn the common pairs

Certain letter pairs show up constantly: TH, ER, IN, RE, ON, AN, ST, ND, CH, SH, EA, OU, ING, ION. Instead of scanning letter by letter, scan for pairs that touch, then see what surrounds them.

3. Extend short words

When you find a short word, test whether it grows. CAT can become CATS, SCAT, CART, CARTS or CATER depending on what touches it. Your short finds are the starting points for your long ones, and longer words score more.

4. Start from rare letters

Q, Z, X and J are hard to place, which means they narrow down quickly. Q is almost always followed by U in English. Look at what touches a Z or an X and you can often rule words in or out immediately. A rare letter in a grid usually belongs to at least one word, and that word can score well.

5. Look for vowel hubs

A square that touches several vowels is a hub where many words can pass through. A square that touches only consonants is a good place for a word to start or to end. Finding the hubs helps you see where words are likely to be.

6. Use prefixes

RE-, UN-, IN-, DE-, DIS- and MIS- at the front of a word turn a short find into a longer one. If you have found PLAY, check whether R and E touch the P: REPLAY.

7. Read backwards from the end of a word

You can trace a word from its last letter as well as from its first. If you see a likely ending such as ING or ED, start there and work backward through the letters that touch it.

8. Take a break

Your eye locks onto the same patterns after a while. Put the game down, do something else and come back. Almost everyone finds words on the second look that they missed on the first. This is also why we do not use a timer. See a word game with no timer.

And when you are truly stuck

Use a hint. It shows the first letters of a word you have not found yet, and then you work out the rest. See how to play.