Denise Sutherland Syndicated puzzle author Learn to: • Solve challenging word searches at various difficulty levels • Master shape, story, and winding word searches • Improve your problem-solving skills • Keep your brain active and healthy Word Searches K I E U C J Z O B O Q U S Z E B U J U H J Q U H I Z U C C H I N I N J Z I U Q O I D P U Y Z A M R E V I U Q A Z L B O B M U J K C A B R E T R A U Q S E O I I Z U Q Q F Z J Y D E M Q T J J M T J L D J T V U U Y Q W A T R U L E Z I D R A P O E J A A T J U S I I Q I Z U N O E N C J T E L Z G T E A Z U E U U L E U O T N E R A I Y J M S Z G H Z Q B W A L Q Z I E A I F D U Q I I A J A C K D A W R E Z A U N I B D E A R L R Y T Z I Q U C Y T U Q Z C I G M Z C E A B L E J G A Z R K R Z U A D E T U O Z K N E T K A Q I E D Q U I T E M Z J N Q Z A R Z E C Y E K Z E S Q I Z E E S O P A T X U J I A C C J U I U O E N A T J Y J G R L O Z U J A T M Q F N J T L U Q O O P Q T A J A Q U Z I L L I O N O J K U K U C P U Z U N Q Z E O L I T E T O G Q E Z Q Q K I I Q Q K T Q U A J S S P E C I R D A U Q E Z P H U J A T A R U G G I Z S S E N L U F Y O J H C L I Z I J P W U Q Z D J J I U Q A S Z D J J I U Q A S Z D H E S A L E J G A Z R K R Z U A T K A Q I E D Q U I T E M E C Y E K Z E S Q I Z E I A C C J U I U O E N A T U J A T M Q F N J T L U Q Q U Z I L L I O N O J K Q Z E O L I T E T O G Q K T Q U A J S S P E C I U J A T A R U G G I Z S H C L I Z I J P W U Q Z R E X A K E A U F C B I M D A Y U H E B N S O L V Making Everything Easier!™ Open the book and find: • 250 brand-new, handcrafted puzzles • The brain-boosting benefits of doing word searches • A chapter with hints for every puzzle • Ten letter-pattern tips • Extra or “Ultra” challenging puzzles • Secrets to designing your own word searches • Web addresses for online resources • Fascinating word puzzle facts Denise Sutherland is a syndicated Australian puzzle author. Her crosswords, word searches, and other puzzles appear in a wide range of Australian and international publications, and she has written five themed puzzle books. Sutherland runs her own graphic design business, Sutherland Studios, where she concentrates on creating handcrafted puzzles. $14.99 US / $17.99 CN / £7.99 UK ISBN 978-0-470-45366-7 Games/Word & Word Search Go to dummies.com® for more! Become a word search whiz — and boost your brain power to boot! Are you wild about word searches? This fun, go-anywhere guide is packed with puzzles to stretch your skills and strengthen your mind. Inside you’ll find eight different kinds of word searches — including one invented by the author! — as well as extensive tips and tricks to improve your puzzle-solving abilities. You’ll have a great time mastering increasingly difficult searches while you reap the brain-boosting benefits. • Working with word searches — get familiar with the eight word search varieties in the book and the strategies for solving each collection • Start with straightforward puzzles — try simple and story word searches, find hidden words, and solve secret-shape puzzles • Conquer more complex searches — gather your wits for scrambles, quiz questions, and secret-list and winding word searches • Play like a pro with bonus puzzles — tackle anagrams and other word games that are guaranteed to make your brain hurt! • Try not to peek — the answers to all puzzles feature full grids, so you can see where each word is placed Word Searches Sutherland Spine: 0.86 by Denise Sutherland Word Searches FOR DUMmIES ‰ Word Searches For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009924575 ISBN: 978-0-470-45366-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Denise Sutherland is an Australian syndicated puzzle author. She has a back- ground in science and graphic design and is a professional member of the Australian Society of Authors. She is also an established artist and classically trained musician. Denise has always been interested in mysteries and puzzles. As a child she was captivated by the Encyclopedia Brown books, which lead inevitably on to the works of Joan Aiken, Georges Simenon, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, P.D. James, and many others; murder mysteries are still her favorite genre, along with anything by Terry Pratchett. There is no offi cial training to become a puzzle writer. It’s an unusual mix of skills: a fascination with words, numbers, puzzles, logic, and patterns; an ability to deconstruct and then reconstruct puzzles; and years of practice. Denise started writing puzzles for her younger sisters and brothers when she was young but got serious about teaching herself to write crosswords and other puzzles when her own children were little, in the late 1980s. Denise has run her own graphic design business, Sutherland Studios, since 1997; however, she now concentrates almost solely on puzzles. She has written puzzles for many groups, from home schooling groups, regional Slow Food organizations, and the Australian Science Archives Project to the Australian sugarcane industry and Capital BlueCross (USA). She has several syndicated puzzle series, including her unique Secret Shape word search puzzles. Her puzzles are published in a wide variety of newspa- pers and magazines in Australia and around the world. Denise has researched, written, and illustrated three themed puzzle books for several organizations (the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, the Alice Springs School of the Air, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), and two books on the history and heritage of her home- town, Canberra (the national capital of Australia). Denise has lived in the States at various times in her life, in New Haven, Connecticut; Tucson, Arizona; and Boulder, Colorado, and currently lives in Canberra with her astrophysicist husband Dr. Ralph and their kids Rodger and Jenny. She is a completely obsessed knitter, and also enjoys BookCrossing, cryptic crosswords, Middle Eastern dancing, and watercolor painting. You can visit her Web site for free puzzles and knitting patterns, and to see her paintings (sutherland-studios.com.au). Dedication To be cut in half and shared equally: For my husband Ralph, whose support, silliness, programming skills, and love I rely on utterly. Yours forever. For my dad Barry, who got me on this puzzling path in the fi rst place. You can blame him. Author’s Acknowledgments First of all, a special thank-you to Natalie Harris at Wiley for making this book happen for me in the fi rst place. I have loved every minute of working with my Wiley team in Indianapolis. A heartfelt thank-you to Sarah Faulkner, Erin Calligan Mooney, and Megan Knoll for making this such an enjoyable experience. Their collective intelligence, enthusiasm, and professionalism are matched only by their warmth and senses of humor. Writing a book with an author half a world away is no easy task, but these women made it seem effortless. My early morning e-mail chats with Sarah (4 p.m. for her was 7 a.m. for me the next day) kept things moving along and were great fun. I couldn’t have asked for a better Technical Editor in Raymond Hamel — his meticulous eye was invaluable. A true blue Aussie “thanks mate” to Rachel “MadMad” Wohanka for her American insights. I couldn’t have written the puzzles in this book without Project X, one-of-a-kind software written by my husband Ralph that helps with the construction process. He refi nes and expands it when I ask nicely. I am in awe of his remarkable skills and eternally grateful for the time he has taken off from his day job (theoretical astrophysics) to write code for me. To end with the most important, my endless love and thanks to my dear family — Ralph, Rodger, and Jenny — for all the cups of tea, words of encour- agement, making sure I took breaks, and keeping me laughing while writing this book. Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Sarah Faulkner Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier Copy Editor: Megan Knoll Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen Technical Editor: Raymond Hamel Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck Editorial Assistants: Jennette ElNaggar, David Lutton Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Christine Williams, Erin Zeltner Proofreaders: Melissa Cossell, Betty Kish Special Help Elizabeth Staton Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2 What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................3 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3 How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3 Part I: Working with Word Searches ...................................................4 Part II: Starting with Straightforward Puzzles ....................................4 Part III: Moving On to Complex Puzzles ..............................................4 Part IV: Hints and Answers ...................................................................4 Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................4 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................5 Part I: Working with Word Searches .............................. 7 Chapter 1: Hunting through the World of Word Searches . . . . . . . . . . .9 Word Searches at a Glance .............................................................................9 Using Word Searches to Keep Your Mind Sharp .......................................11 Understanding dementia.....................................................................11 Considering the importance of mind puzzles and games ...............13 A Fun Romp through Word Search History ...............................................14 Chapter 2: Perfecting Your Puzzle-Solving Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Solving Word Searches .................................................................................17 Gathering your equipment .................................................................18 Marking the words ...............................................................................18 Tackling the grid ..................................................................................20 Moving Past Word Searches: Anagrams and Other Word Games ...........22 Understanding anagrams ....................................................................23 Anagramming tricks ............................................................................23 Rearranging letters for tile games .....................................................24 Baffl ing letter squares .........................................................................25 Staying alive in Hangman ....................................................................26 vii Table of Contents Part II: Starting with Straightforward Puzzles .............. 27 Chapter 3: Trying Your Hand at Simple Word Searches. . . . . . . . . . . .29 Chapter 4: Reading up on Story Word Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Chapter 5: Finding Hidden Words in Your Puzzles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Chapter 6: Solving Secret Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 Part III: Moving On to Complex Puzzles ...................... 155 Chapter 7: Gathering Your Wits for Scrambled Searches . . . . . . . . .157 Chapter 8: Are You Ready for Some Quiz Words? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187 Taking the Quiz ............................................................................................187 Turning to the Grid ......................................................................................188 Chapter 9: Solving Secret List Word Searches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 Chapter 10: Weaving Your Way through Winder Words. . . . . . . . . . .261 Chapter 11: Discovering Anagrams and Other Word Games . . . . . . .281 Part IV: Hints and Answers ....................................... 291 Chapter 12: Helpful Hints to Keep You Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293 Understanding the Grid Coordinate System ............................................293 Chapter 1 Hint ..............................................................................................294 Chapter 3 Hints ............................................................................................294 Chapter 4 Hints ............................................................................................296 Chapter 5 Hints ............................................................................................296 Chapter 6 Hints ............................................................................................298 Chapter 7 Hints ............................................................................................299 Chapter 8 Hints ............................................................................................301 Chapter 9 Hints ............................................................................................302 Chapter 10 Hints ..........................................................................................304 Chapter 11 Hints ..........................................................................................305 Chapter 13: The Answers You Seek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309 Word Searches For Dummies viii Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 403 Chapter 14: Ten Letter-Pattern Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405 Letters by Frequency ..................................................................................406 Common First Letters .................................................................................407 Common Last Letters ..................................................................................408 Follow Me: Common Letter Sequences .....................................................408 Two’s Company: Digraphs ..........................................................................408 Make That Three: Trigraphs ......................................................................409 Double the Fun: Double Letters .................................................................409 Common Prefi xes .........................................................................................409 Common Suffi xes .........................................................................................410 Common Consonant Patterns at the Beginnings of Words ....................410 Chapter 15: Ten Benefi ts of Doing Word Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411 They’re Portable Boredom-Busters ..........................................................411 They Keep Your Brain Active .....................................................................411 They Increase Your Vocabulary ................................................................411 They Help You Learn New Languages ......................................................412 They Help You Gather Knowledge in a Way that Makes Sense to You .........................................................................412 They Let You Relax and Have Fun .............................................................412 They Sharpen Your Spelling Skills .............................................................413 They Train Your Brain to Recognize Patterns .........................................413 They Help You Overcome Insomnia .........................................................414 They’re a Way to Spend Quality Time with the Family ..........................414 Chapter 16: Ten Steps to Help You Design Your Own Word Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415 Step 1: Choose a Theme ..............................................................................415 Step 2: Gather Your Words .........................................................................416 Step 3: Make the Big Grid Decisions ..........................................................417 Step 4: Assemble the Tools of the Trade ..................................................417 Step 5: Just Add Words ...............................................................................418 Step 6: Ponder the Punctuation .................................................................420 Step 7: Erase and Change as Needed ........................................................421 Step 8: Fill in the Grid ..................................................................................421 Step 9: Check and Recheck the Puzzle ......................................................422 Step 10: Make It Pretty ................................................................................422 Using a computer ...............................................................................422 Writing it out by hand .......................................................................423