The digital world, in one grid
Technology is everywhere, and this puzzle gathers the words behind it. You'll be finding the big ones — COMPUTER, INTERNET and ROBOT — the parts that make them work, from SOFTWARE and HARDWARE to the humble BATTERY, and the everyday kit, from the SMARTPHONE to the SCREEN you're reading this on.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the words change every time you play — a gentle boot-up on Easy, and a longer-word challenge once the diagonals and backwards words appear on Hard. One round a backwards WIRELESS is tucked along the edge; the next a diagonal CIRCUIT runs clean across the middle.
A modern fit for computing topics
Technology and computing are now core subjects, and a word search is a friendly way to build the vocabulary. The grid covers the kit and its parts — the LAPTOP, TABLET and GADGET, the KEYBOARD, MOUSE and WEBCAM, the CHARGER and the CIRCUIT inside — and the invisible side that makes it all tick, from the NETWORK and the SERVER to a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, a tiny SENSOR and the PIXELS on your screen. This puzzle pairs well with an ICT unit or a topic on how digital devices work.
How fast it all happened
The most astonishing thing about technology is its speed. The first electronic COMPUTER, built in the 1940s, filled an entire room and weighed about 30 tonnes — yet today's SMARTPHONE is millions of times more powerful and slips into a pocket. The INTERNET only opened to the public in the early 1990s, and the touchscreen phone arrived in 2007; in barely one human lifetime, computers have gone from rare, room-sized machines to something almost everyone on Earth carries around.
Underneath the shiny SCREEN, the basic idea has stayed beautifully simple. Every photo, song and message is really just numbers — long strings of 1s and 0s, which is what 'DIGITAL' means — zipping through a CIRCUIT or across a NETWORK and being turned back into pictures and sound at the other end. Knowing that the SOFTWARE (the instructions) and the HARDWARE (the physical parts) are two halves of the same trick is the key idea behind a whole computing topic, and this word search is a friendly way in.
Pick an area or build your own
The sub-topics below zoom in on five areas — computers, the internet, coding, gadgets and robots, plus many more — each with its own puzzle and printable pack. Or use Make Your Own to enter the key terms you're teaching and print a pack for a lesson starter or cover task.
Frequently asked questions
What technology words are in the puzzle?
The everyday digital world — computers, the internet and robots, the parts that make them work from software to the humble battery, and kit like the smartphone and screen. Sub-topics cover computers, the internet, coding, gadgets and robots.
Does it fit a computing or ICT lesson?
Well suited — technology and computing are core subjects now, and the words map onto common units on how devices work. It makes a friendly lesson starter or cover task.
Can I make a word search for a specific tech topic?
Yes — pick a sub-topic like coding or robots for a ready-made grid, or use Make Your Own to enter the key terms you're teaching.