Word Puzzles
The word search, sometimes referred to as a word find, is a puzzle that consists of a block of letters. The player is given a certain list of words to find among those letters horizonatally, vertically and diagonally. The player wins upon finding every word on the list. Puzzles usually have some kind of theme and the words that the player will look for are somewhat related. Most newspapers feature these puzzles in every single issue. New advances have also allowed word search puzzles to make their way onto cell phones and PDAs.
Crossword puzzles are block shaped word puzzles with blank squares. Some squares have been blacked out meaning that they will not be in use. The grid comes with a list of clues that are numerically related to certain lines in the puzzle. Words are solved horizontally and vertically and often intersect, thus the term "crossword." The intersected or shared letters are meant to help the player figure out if he is using the right word. Just like word search puzzles, crosswords are typically found in every newspaper. The New York Times crossword is one of the paper's most popular features.
Aside from printable crossword puzzles that can be easily found on the internet and crossword books which usually feature hundreds of different puzzles with varying difficulty levels, interactive crossword puzzles and word searches can be found on the internet. Yahoo Games and USA Today offer several word games. Aside from crossword puzzles and word searches, which are updated daily, these websites also offer games similar to Scrabble, Wheel of Fortune and word jumbles.