Expert word search

On the expert level the puzzle stops telling you what to look for. The grid is 15×15, there are twenty words, and they run in all eight directions, backwards and diagonally included. The twist is the word list: until you find a word, it appears only as a row of blanks, one for each letter. You know that one word has five letters and another has nine, but not what they are.

Each word fills in on the list once you find it. Expert words have four to thirteen letters and come from the same everyday word list as the other levels, so you will know every one of them once you see it.

Expert turns the usual method around. Instead of hunting for a given word, you read the grid and ask: is there a word here?

• Look for common word endings. Clusters such as ING, TION, ER, ED and LY often sit at the end of a hidden word. When you spot one, read backwards from it in a straight line and see whether a word appears.
• Read every line both ways. Rows, then columns, then diagonals, forward and backward. Slow, but it finds what pattern-spotting misses.
• Use the lengths. If the only blanks left are a four-letter and an eleven-letter word, a short word you notice cannot be the answer unless it has exactly four letters.
• Save hints for the end. A hint works the same way as on other levels: tap a blank word and its first letter flashes in the grid, tap it again and the second letter shows the direction.

Expert is meant for players who find hard comfortable. It is slower than the other levels, and a solved expert grid with no hints is something to be pleased about. More strategy is on the tips page.