Science word search
Twelve fun science words are hiding in this grid, from a tiny atom to a whole volcano. All eight directions are in play, so check the diagonals and read backwards too.
Curated by 
Esme Rook
·
Updated October 2026
Play it right here
Drag across the letters to select a word. Words hide across, down and diagonally, forwards and backwards. Works with mouse and touch.
What words are hidden in this science word search?
Twelve fun science words in a 12x12 grid: atom, magnet, gravity, volcano, laser, robot, microscope, experiment, crystal, energy, beaker and dinosaur. They hide in all eight directions, so words also run diagonally and backwards. MICROSCOPE and EXPERIMENT are the ten letter anchors; ATOM, four common letters, usually holds out longest.
The fun kind of science
No formulas, no quiz at the end. This is the science of things that erupt, glow, spin and roar: the volcano, the laser, the robot and the dinosaur all made the list because they are simply great words to hunt for. It plays well from about age 8 upward and makes a pleasant coffee break for an adult who still thinks magnets are a little bit magic. They are.
Print it or play it
Play it right on this page or print the free PDF; the separate solution sheet marks all twelve words on the same grid, so the puzzle can go around the table while the answers stay in your pocket. The playable board, the PDF and the solution come from one generated puzzle, so they always match. If your table prefers clues to hidden words, the science crossword puzzle runs on the same curiosity. If the curiosity runs backwards instead of forwards, the history word search hides the parchment, the aqueduct and the astrolabe across seven printable boards.
Seven science word searches to print, one for each corner of the subject
Six extra boards: the bench you work at, the wall chart, what pushes what, what is inside you, what is alive and the people who worked it all out. A weather board was on the list and was cut, because the fall word search and the spring word search already have one each and a third would have made three pages read the same. Two word terms run together on the grid: test tube is TESTTUBE, petri dish is PETRIDISH, lab coat is LABCOAT.
The 12x12 board on this page
The board above, printed: the ten letter MICROSCOPE and EXPERIMENT anchor a 12x12 grid of the fun end of science, and ATOM is four letters that will not turn up until you stop looking for it.
The lab: what is actually on the bench
A 13x13 board of the equipment itself, in all eight directions: the Bunsen burner, the test tube, the pipette, the funnel, the tongs, the flask, the tripod, the stirrer, the petri dish, the balance and the lab coat.
The elements: twelve off the wall chart
Twelve elements a school actually names, on a 12x12 board: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sodium, calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium, chlorine and argon. Helium is missing on purpose, and it is on a parade float somewhere else on this site.
Forces: the physics half, in twelve words
A 12x12 grid of the things that make something move or stop moving: friction, momentum, inertia, acceleration, thrust, pressure, the lever, the pulley, the fulcrum, velocity, and kinetic against potential.
The body: twelve parts, none of them obvious
The board that skips the arm and the leg, 12x12: the lungs, the kidney, the liver, the spine, the muscles, the artery, the nerves, the ribcage, the tendon, the brainstem, the pancreas and the cartilage.
Biology, 14x14: the fourteen letter one
The biggest board here, and it had to be: PHOTOSYNTHESIS is fourteen letters and can only lie on a full row, a full column or a main diagonal. With it come bacteria, the organism, the habitat, the ecosystem, chlorophyll and the nucleus.
The scientists: twelve surnames
Twelve names in a 12x12 grid, three of them women: Einstein, Curie, Darwin, Galileo, Tesla, Pasteur, Mendel, Faraday, Hawking, Newton, Lovelace and Turing.
Same theme, different puzzle: Science crossword puzzle
