Secret word searches

A secret word search has a second puzzle inside the first. Cross off every word on the list, read the squares nobody used from left to right, and they spell one more word — one that belongs to the same theme but was never on the list.

That changes how the puzzle is solved. An ordinary word search can be abandoned halfway with nothing lost; this one cannot, because the answer only appears when the grid is clear. It is the difference between a puzzle you stop doing and one you finish.

The grids are smaller than a plain word search and much fuller. Leaving only the answer behind means the words have to cover nearly every square, so a nine-by-nine here holds nine to fifteen words where an ordinary one of that size would hold five. Finding them is easier than usual — they are everywhere — and the satisfaction is in what is left.

The four sheets below hide five to nine letters. The generator will hide a word of your own in your own list, or pick one from a theme for you, and it says so plainly when a word will not fit rather than quietly printing a puzzle with no answer in it.