# Elementary word-search

Here's a simple wordsearch:

...and the text version:

P O X A N T I M O N Y L I T I F
M R E P P O C A K R Y P T O N C
U T N D I D X O T H T H I N P G
I I O D I N E W R O T N M G P L
N U N T O N N U M S R U C A N D
I D A R M S T A D T I U M I M U
E S M H T U T C U D U R L S U I
T I U O M U I A A H M A O B I C
S L D D E F N N G H I N X M N B
N I J I K L A G A M N I Y E O O
I C P U Q V R S S M T U G R C U
E O V M W X H A Y T R M E C R O
W N F L U O R I N E E E N U I T
H O U G Z T J H A T R N G R Z K
L G E N E G O R D Y H A S Y F O
N I O B I U M M U N A H T N A L


I seem to have misplaced the word list shortly after creating this - not to worry! I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding all 23 22 words on your own.

Tell me please, why did I choose these words in particular?

(Please not use a word-search solver or any other computer tools)

Edit: Oops!! It turns out I left out a word while making this puzzle. The word

PHOSPHORUS

should appear in the word search, but it does not. So, no need to try to find it, but you should still include it in the reasoning for why I chose these words

• Hi, I'm not familiar with word searches. Can words follow diagonals/columns/rows. How about reading them backwards? (or would this give away the answer?) Jul 1 '20 at 23:37
• @chaslyfromUK yes words can go horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and can run both forwards and backwards Jul 1 '20 at 23:51

The words are all

Chemical elements! (As indicated by the title: 'elementary')

And

Theres one for every letter of the alphabet (given there is a element starting with that letter)

J, Q and W don’t have any elements starting with those letters, so there are only 23 possible words hidden.

Heres the completed grid:

And listing them (see El-Guests answer for coordinates!):

Alphabetical order:

Antimony
Bismuth
Copper
Einsteinium
Fluorine
Germanium
Hydrogen
Iodine
J -
Krypton
Lanthanum
Mercury
Niobium
Oxygen
P (accidentally left out of grid)
Q -
Rhodium
Silicon
Tungsten
Uranium
W -
Xenon
Yttrium
Zirconium

• Almost correct! I did accidentally leave out PHOSPHORUS while making the puzzle (see edit), but there is an element that starts with R still left in the puzzle. Good luck! Jul 1 '20 at 23:44
• And it looks like I’ve been nipped to the answer — nice job, BG! Jul 1 '20 at 23:47
• @El-Guest still +1! That was very close! I’m going to credit you for R too if you don’t mind, because I spent 10 mins looking for it and couldn’t find it :P Jul 1 '20 at 23:49
• @BeastlyGerbil should I accept yours or El-Guest's answer? because he technically finished first but I like your completed grid image Jul 1 '20 at 23:57
• Fun puzzle BryanC, and great answer @BeastlyGerbil! This was a nice one. Jul 1 '20 at 23:58

Using the top left corner as (1,1) and the bottom right corner as (16,16) — (row, column)

Antimony (1,4) to (1,11)
Bismuth (9,16) to (3,10)
Copper (2,7) to (2,2)
Darmstadtium (6,2) to (6,13)
Einsteinium (12,1) to (2,1)
Fluorine (13,3) to (13,10)
Germanium (14,13) to (5,6)
Hydrogen (15,11) to (15,4)
Iodine (4,2) to (4,7)
Krypton (2,9) to (2,15)
Lanthanum (16,16) to (16,8)
Mercury (9,14) to (15,14)
Niobium (16,1) to (16,7)
Oxygen (8,13) to (13,13)
Rhodium (6,4) to (12,4)
Silicon (7,2) to (13,2)
Tungsten (7,5) to (14,12)
Uranium (6,12) to (12,12)
Vanadium (11,6) to (4,13)
Xenon (1,3) to (5,3)
Yttrium (2,11) to (8,11)
Zirconium (14,15) to (6,15)

It looks like

Except for a missing P, there’s an element for every starting letter here. PS: sorry for the formatting, this was just hand typed on mobile....

• I switched halfway through my answer to mobile, and wow it’s so much slower :P Great answer though! Very close one and I really like the coordinate idea, linked your answer in mine :) Jul 2 '20 at 0:04
• @El-Guest I accepted Beastly-Gerbil's answer because his had a better visual, and also did complete the majority of the puzzle. However you did find the last (rather difficult) word, which means you did technically complete the puzzle first! I hope you don't mind Jul 2 '20 at 0:21