Word search puzzles have, like crosswords and arrowords, been very popular in the United Kingdom, and - also in common with these latter puzzles - have had complete magazines devoted to them. Word searches are commonly found in daily newspapers and puzzle books. Some teachers use them as educational tools for children, the benefit being that young minds can learn new words and their spellings by intensively searching for them, letter by letter, in the puzzle. A common strategy for finding all the words is to go through the puzzle left to right (or vice versa) and look for the first letter
Alternade Alternade An alternade is a word in which its letters, taken alternatively in a strict sequence, and used in the same order as the original word, make up at least two other words. All letters must be used, but the smaller words are not necessarily of the same length. For example, a word with seven letters where every second letter is used will produce a four-letter word and a three-letter word. In the majority of alternades, every second letter is used to make two smaller words, but in some cases, every third letter is used to make three smaller words.