Daily word search puzzles you can play online

For a classic word search with a list of words to find, the LA Times publishes a themed 15x15 grid every day, Arkadium runs its own daily word search with an archive of earlier puzzles, and Penny Dell's daily word search is free on Arkadium too. The Globe and Mail's Wordfinder is the Canadian newspaper's version. Word Search Colorful offers four new puzzles a day with a daily leaderboard, and One Word Search from Puzzlist keeps things calm and simple.

If a straight list feels too easy, try a search with a twist. Strands from The New York Times gives you a theme and no word list: the words bend through a small grid, every letter belongs to one of them, and one word spans the whole board. Bored Panda's Daily Word Search has three levels, from straight lines to words that bend in any direction, and rewards extra words with hints. Puzzmo's Spelltower makes used letters vanish so the tower settles, and Wordfive mixes a word search with sudoku. The Times Wordhunt hides a single five-letter word in 25 letters.

Word searches are a good way into another language. La Nación and El Mundo publish daily sopas de letras in Spanish, Dagbladet's Ordjakten is Norwegian, Information's Find Ord is Danish, and Polish players have Wykreślanka and Zlepka, the last one with a spangram like Strands.

To start, pick one classic grid for a relaxed solve and Strands for a daily challenge; they take about the same few minutes.