History of Word Search Puzzles
The word search puzzle (also known as WordSeek, WordFind, WonderWord, and so on) was Norman E. Gibat devised and published "Sopas de Letras" (Spanish "Soup of Letters") in the Selenby Digest on March 1, 1968, in Norman, Oklahoma, even though the Spanish puzzle inventor Pedro Ocón de Oro was publishing "Sopas de Letras" (Spanish "Soup of Letters") before that date. Selenby was a little want-ad digest provided for free at Safeway and other establishments in town. The original page size is 8.5 by 5.5 inches.
The game was quite popular, and several others followed suit. Some Norman teachers requested reproductions to use in their classes. One instructor distributed them to various colleagues in other schools across the country. One of these scattered copies undoubtedly led to someone selling the idea to a syndicator.
With Facebook games like Letters of Gold, word search puzzles have become extremely popular on the internet. A Way with Words, Boggle, Bookworm, Letterpress, Outworded, Puzzlage, Ruzzle, Wonderword, Wordament, WordSpot, Word Streak with Friends, and Word Winder are some other digital and tabletop word search games.
A word search, a word find, a word seek, a word sleuth, or a mystery word puzzle is a type of word game in which the letters of words are arranged in a grid that is usually rectangular or square. The goal of this problem is to locate and label all of the words buried inside the box. The words can be arranged in any order, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. A list of the hidden words is frequently included, while more challenging puzzles may not. Many word search puzzles contain a theme, such as food, animals, or colors, to which all hidden words are related. In addition, puzzles, including crosswords and arrowords, have grown in popularity. These latter riddles, like the former, have spawned entire books and mobile applications devoted to solving them.
In newspapers and publications, word searches are commonplace.
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