# Word Trace

Score as many words as you can before the clock runs out.

- Category: Word
- Features: Leaderboard, Saved progress
- Tags: word, letters, grid, word_trace, anagram, vocabulary, spelling, find, brain

## How to play

### Goal

Score as many words as you can before the clock runs out. Trace a chain of touching letters — across, down or diagonally — to spell a word, and the longer the word, the more it is worth.

### Rules

• A word is a chain of letters, each next to the last (including diagonally)
• No cell may be used twice in the same word
• Words must be at least the minimum length for the level (3, or 4 on Hard)
• Longer words score far more: 3–4 letters = 1, 5 = 2, 6 = 3, 7 = 5, 8+ = 11
• The same word only scores once, however you trace it
• A “Qu” cell counts as the two letters Q and U

### How to Play

• Drag across touching letters to trace a word, then lift your finger to submit it
• A green trace is a valid new word; a red trace means it was too short, already found, or not a word
• On a keyboard, just type the letters — the board lights up the path for you — then press Enter to submit and Backspace to fix a typo
• Keyboard grid mode: arrows or WASD move the cursor, Space adds the highlighted letter to the chain, Enter submits, Escape clears

### Tips

• Hunt for common endings — S, ED, ING, ER — hanging off words you already found
• Plurals and tenses are separate words: PLAY, PLAYS, PLAYED, PLAYING all score
• Sweep the board for prefixes like RE, UN and IN before time runs low
• Long words are where the points are — one 8-letter word beats eleven short ones

### Difficulty

Easy is the classic 4×4 board with 2 minutes. Medium is the bigger 5×5 board with 2½ minutes. Hard keeps the 5×5 board but gives only 2 minutes and asks for 4-letter words and up.

Play Word Trace in the free Game Nest app for iPhone, iPad, and Android.