What does a child have to do to find a hidden word in the 11+?

Locate a continuous target word across a bounded letter string. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the word strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

What is the trap in an 11+ find a hidden word question?

A word hidden inside a single word is not the answer, however clearly you can see it. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What is not part of find a hidden word in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: Letters remain in order and contiguous. A question past that line is testing a different named verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside find a hidden word?

The word strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to find a hidden word are follow a word ladder, form a compound word and form a derived word. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise find a hidden word for free?

Use Hidden Word Lens, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to find a hidden word, it runs in the browser with no account to make, these exercises are not scored and do not save learner records. The separate quiz sends answers for marking and shows a score, without saving an assessment record. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Verbal Reasoning · Word

Find a hidden word

Locate a continuous target word across a bounded letter string.

Watch the worked example

Open the video page

Uncover the Hidden Word

This video shows how to find a word concealed in a continuous string of letters. Watch an 11+ verbal reasoning question solved step by step.

0:00 / 2:24

Turn on captions with the CC button. Jump to any part with the chapter buttons.

Read the transcript

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Quick quiz: Find a hidden word

10 questions, with feedback after each one. No sign-up needed.

Read the questions in this quiz

Question 1
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: We grew fresh oregano outside once again. Which word is it?
- A.short
- B.shore
- C.fresh
- D.again
Question 2
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: They arrive right after the bell before breakfast. Which word is it?
- A.right
- B.break
- C.river
- D.after
Question 3
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: The club rushed off after playtime. Which word is it?
- A.brush
- B.after
- C.glass
- D.paint
Question 4
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: They arrive right after the bell before bedtime. Which word is it?
- A.river
- B.right
- C.after
- D.stone
Question 5
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: We grew fresh oregano outside. Which word is it?
- A.paint
- B.fresh
- C.table
- D.shore
Question 6
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: She joins the club each Saturday morning before registration. Which word is it?
- A.joins
- B.tiger
- C.ratio
- D.beach
Question 7
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: We agree nearly every time before bedtime. Which word is it?
- A.early
- B.agree
- C.every
- D.green
Question 8
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: The cub rushed away at bedtime. Which word is it?
- A.brain
- B.short
- C.place
- D.brush
Question 9
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: The cub rushed away once again. Which word is it?
- A.brush
- B.again
- C.grain
- D.white
Question 10
A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: She joins the club each Saturday morning on the way home. Which word is it?
- A.beach
- B.joins
- C.snake
- D.spine

Practise it now

A 3-letter word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words. Slide the lens along the sentence to find it.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Reading across the gaps between words

A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: The quiet reeds swayed before breakfast. Which word is it?

Sweep one sentence and see why only the joins between words can hold the answer.

milk
tree
fish
crow

Answer: tree

How you get there

Run "quiet reeds" together and you get "quietreeds", and "tree" is sitting right there, starting inside one word and finishing inside the next. That is the whole trick: the spaces are a disguise, so close them up and sweep a 4-letter window along the letters, checking each join in turn. A word that sits INSIDE a single word does not count, because the question asks for one that crosses a gap.

Why the other answers tempt

A word hidden inside a single word is not the answer, however clearly you can see it.

If they are stuck, say this

Close up the gaps in your head and read the sentence as one long string of letters, checking each join in turn.

Now do it live in Hidden Word Lens

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Ready? Let's have a go at Find a hidden word together. Sweep one sentence and see why only the joins between words can hold the answer. Here comes the question: A word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words in this sentence, with the spaces closed up: The quiet reeds swayed before breakfast. Which word is it? Before we race ahead, let us choose one good first step. Here is a helpful clue: Close up the gaps in your head and read the sentence as one long string of letters, checking each join in turn. Nice work. Now let us follow the thinking: That is the whole trick: the spaces are a disguise, so close them up and sweep a 4-letter window along the letters, checking each join in turn. So our answer is: tree. There is one sneaky trap to watch for: A word hidden inside a single word is not the answer, however clearly you can see it. Can you show me that first move again in your own words? Brilliant. No rush; we are practising a method you can reuse, not trying to win a speed contest.

What this exercise is doing

Hidden Word Lens

A 3-letter word is hiding across the join between two neighbouring words. Slide the lens along the sentence to find it.

Run the letters of "saucer under" together and you get "saucerunder", and "run" is sitting right there, starting inside "saucer" and finishing inside "under". That is the whole trick of hidden words: the spaces are a disguise. Ignore them, sweep a 3-letter window along the letters, and check every join between two words. Work along the sentence one join at a time rather than staring at the whole line: the join between "saucer" and "under" is the one that pays off here.

What to say if they get stuck

Close up the gaps in your head and read the sentence as one long string of letters.
The word you want is never inside a single word. It always starts in one word and finishes in the next.

Open Hidden Word Lens on its own page to share it

Related verbal reasoning skills

Apply a word transformation ruleApply one stated letter-level transformation rule to form a valid target word.
Complete a word with a letterSupply a letter that makes a valid word under the stated constraint.
Follow a word ladderChange one permitted letter at each step while preserving valid intermediate words.
Form a compound wordJoin two supplied word parts to make a conventional compound.
Form a derived wordForm one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation.
Move a letter between wordsMove one supplied letter from one word to another so both results are valid words.
Identify an impossible word formationDetermine which candidate cannot be formed under a supplied letter rule.
Solve an anagram in contextRearrange all supplied letters into a context-compatible word.

All verbal reasoning 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about find a hidden word

What this skill involves, common mistakes and ways to practise it at home.

: Locate a continuous target word across a bounded letter string. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the word strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
: A word hidden inside a single word is not the answer, however clearly you can see it. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Close up the gaps in your head and read the sentence as one long string of letters, checking each join in turn.
: The skill map draws the line here: Letters remain in order and contiguous. A question past that line is testing a different named verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The word strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to find a hidden word are follow a word ladder, form a compound word and form a derived word. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Hidden Word Lens, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to find a hidden word, it runs in the browser with no account to make, these exercises are not scored and do not save learner records. The separate quiz sends answers for marking and shows a score, without saving an assessment record. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Verbal reasoning is a set of question types, not a subject to revise

A free diagnostic works out which of the codes, analogies, word puzzles and logic types are already secure, and which are not.