St Patricks Day word search
Twelve St Patricks Day words are hiding in this grid, and the gold is not the only thing at the end of a diagonal. All eight directions are in play.
Curated by 
Esme Rook
·
Updated August 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 in this St Patricks Day word search?
Twelve of them, in a 12x12 grid: shamrock, leprechaun, Ireland, green, rainbow, clover, lucky, parade, gold, Dublin, emerald and harp. LEPRECHAUN is the ten letter giant and the easiest find, because a word that long can only sit in a handful of places. GOLD is four letters of pure camouflage and is usually the last one standing.
How hard is it, and what age is it for?
This board uses all eight directions, so words run diagonally and backwards, not just across and down. That makes it a fair challenge from about age 8 upward, and a decent ten minutes for an adult. For younger children, the easy word search keeps its eight words across and down, forwards only.
Can I print it for a class?
Yes, and March is when it earns its keep. The puzzle PDF and the solution PDF are separate free downloads, so the sheet can go out to the class while the answers stay on your desk. It prints clean in black and white on ordinary paper.
Seven St Patricks Day word searches to print, one for each part of Ireland
Six extra boards, and between them they are a small tour: the symbols on the badge, the map, the colour itself, the old stories, the parade and the music in the corner of the pub. The places board is the reason this page can never be mistaken for any other sheet on the site. Two word terms run together on the grid: Celtic knot is CELTICKNOT, round tower is ROUNDTOWER, pipe band is PIPEBAND, tin whistle is TINWHISTLE.
The 12x12 board on this page
The board above as a sheet: twelve words in all eight directions, with a ten letter leprechaun that falls quickly and a four letter GOLD that is nearly always the last one standing.
The symbols: what goes on the badge
Eleven emblems on a 13x13 board, past the shamrock everybody draws: the shillelagh, the claddagh ring, the Celtic knot, the round tower, the wolfhound and the snakes Patrick is said to have sent away.
The places: the map, without Dublin
Twelve place names in a 12x12 grid and Dublin is not one of them, because it is already on the board at the top of this page: Galway, Cork, Killarney, Connemara, Donegal, Belfast and the rest.
Green: the colour on its own
The colour gets a whole grid because on this one day it is the point: twelve greens in 12x12, from moss and fern through lime, jade, olive and mint to a hedgerow and a wet meadow.
The folklore: past the leprechaun
A 13x13 board for the older stories, where the leprechaun is a minor character: the banshee, the puca, the changeling, the fairy fort nobody will plough, the selkie, the dullahan and Tir na nOg.
The parade: 17 March in the street
The day outdoors on a 13x13 board: the pipe band, the bagpipes, the drum major, the kilt, the step dancers, the bunting, the crowds and the river Chicago dyes green every year.
The music: the session in the corner
Twelve words for the session rather than the parade, in a 13x13 grid: the fiddle, the bodhran, the tin whistle, the concertina, the jig, the reel, the hornpipe and the lilt underneath all of it.
