Vegetable Word Search
A vegetable word search with 10 vegetables, from carrot to broccoli, plus two fixed printable puzzles: eight short names for beginners and a 15 x 15 challenge of 16 more, including kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts.
Two printable vegetable puzzles
These two puzzles are fixed: the grid is the same every time, so you can print identical sheets for a class or a party. Each has a word list, a Show answers button, a Print button and a printable answer key. Download both as a PDF (with answer keys)
Vegetable Word Search 1: Garden Basics
A 10 x 10 puzzle for beginners. Eight short words, hidden across, down and diagonally down to the right only.
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
Vegetable Word Search 1: Garden Basics: answer key
- BEAN: row 9, column 1, across to the right
- BEET: row 2, column 2, diagonally down and to the right
- CORN: row 1, column 4, across to the right
- KALE: row 3, column 4, across to the right
- LEEK: row 2, column 1, diagonally down and to the right
- OKRA: row 2, column 3, diagonally down and to the right
- PEA: row 5, column 9, down
- YAM: row 6, column 8, down
Vegetable Word Search 2: Vegetable Challenge
A 15 x 15 puzzle with sixteen longer words, hidden in every direction, including backwards and up.
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
Vegetable Word Search 2: Vegetable Challenge: answer key
- ARTICHOKE: row 3, column 4, down
- ASPARAGUS: row 15, column 9, up
- BEETROOT: row 7, column 13, diagonally down and to the left
- BRUSSELS SPROUTS: row 15, column 1, diagonally up and to the right
- CAULIFLOWER: row 2, column 11, diagonally down and to the left
- CUCUMBER: row 10, column 1, up
- EGGPLANT: row 9, column 14, up
- FENNEL: row 3, column 5, down
- KOHLRABI: row 15, column 14, across to the left
- LETTUCE: row 2, column 8, across to the left
- PARSNIP: row 3, column 15, down
- RUTABAGA: row 1, column 4, across to the right
- SQUASH: row 14, column 9, across to the right
- TURNIP: row 8, column 3, up
- WATERCRESS: row 4, column 2, down
- ZUCCHINI: row 7, column 8, diagonally down and to the right
About this vegetable word search
Vegetables make a useful word search because the names are everyday words that children read at the dinner table, and because the list invites a conversation about which part of the plant we eat. The default list is a mix: carrot and radish are roots, potato is a tuber, onion is a bulb, celery is a stalk, spinach and cabbage are leaves, and broccoli is a cluster of flower buds. Pepper and pumpkin are botanically fruits, though cooks treat them as vegetables.
The easy puzzle uses eight short names: pea, corn, beet, leek, kale, okra, bean and yam. The challenge puzzle is a stretch for most solvers, with cauliflower, artichoke, asparagus and zucchini among the longer words and some less common entries such as rutabaga, kohlrabi and watercress. Brussels sprouts has 15 letters once the space is removed, so the grid is exactly as wide as the word.
This is a natural puzzle for a garden or nutrition lesson. Ask students to sort the words by the part of the plant we eat, or by color, and to circle the ones they have eaten this week. For a school garden, use the generator to make a puzzle from what you are growing.
Word notes
- Carrot: a root vegetable, usually orange.
- Potato: a starchy tuber that grows underground.
- Onion: a bulb with layers of tightly wrapped leaves.
- Cabbage: a leafy vegetable that forms a round head.
- Spinach: a dark green leafy vegetable.
- Broccoli: a vegetable whose edible part is a cluster of flower buds.
- Celery: a crisp stalk eaten raw or cooked.
Vocabulary tip
Several words here change by region. A zucchini is called a courgette in the UK, an eggplant an aubergine, and a rutabaga a swede. If your class uses British spellings, ask which names they know.
Difficulty guide
- Generator (default list). The 10 words run from 5 letters (onion) to 8 letters (broccoli), 6.4 letters on average and 64 letters in all, which fills about 33% of the default 14 x 14 grid. On the default Medium setting, words can run in five directions. Choose Easy for across, down and diagonal-right only, or Hard to add backwards and upwards.
- Easy puzzle. 8 words of 3 to 4 letters in a 10 x 10 grid, with nothing hidden backwards or upwards.
- Challenge puzzle. 16 words of 6 to 15 letters in a 15 x 15 grid, with 9 of them hidden backwards or upwards. Brussels sprouts is the 15-letter outlier in the challenge, and cauliflower, asparagus and watercress are long enough to stretch across most of a row.
Ways to use it
- Sort the ten words by the part of the plant we eat: root, leaf, stem, bulb or flower.
- In a school garden, circle the words for what you have planted and cross off what you have harvested.
- To use your own list, edit the words in the box at the top of the page and press Generate puzzle, or press New layout, same words for a fresh grid. Print it with Show answers ticked to add a separate answer page.
- Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
- Botanically a pumpkin is a fruit, because it grows from a flower and contains seeds. In cooking it is treated as a vegetable.
- Which part of the plant is broccoli?
- The part we eat is the flower buds, which grow in a tight cluster at the top of the plant.
- What is a zucchini called in other countries?
- In the UK and some other countries a zucchini is called a courgette. An eggplant is an aubergine there.
- Can I make a word search from my own vegetable list?
- Yes. Type your vegetables into the word box, one per line, then press Generate puzzle.
FAQ
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