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Body Parts Word Search

Body parts, from head to toe.

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Your puzzle

Where the words come from
Kind of puzzle
36 themes, grouped by kind.
4 to 25 from this theme
Print size
10 to 20 squares
Border
Answer key
Raise this to put a different one on every page.
Up to 40 characters, printed on the sheet and its answer key. Leave it empty for the title shown.
Your word search

Body parts Word Search

  • NECK
  • FOOT
  • THIGH
  • LEG
  • KNUCKLE
  • CHEST
  • BACK
  • KNEE
  • SKULL
  • WAIST
  • MOUTH
  • WRIST

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Body parts Word Search, Answer Key

  • NECK
  • FOOT
  • THIGH
  • LEG
  • KNUCKLE
  • CHEST
  • BACK
  • KNEE
  • SKULL
  • WAIST
  • MOUTH
  • WRIST

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Or take one that is already made

Four sheets, each with a different job. Every one is a two-page PDF, the puzzle, then the answer key on its own page.

Body parts word search printable, large print: 11 by 11 grid, 7 words, easyBody parts word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓Body parts word search printable, everyday: 14 by 14 grid, 11 words, mediumBody parts word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Body parts word search printable, more words: 15 by 15 grid, 14 words, mediumBody parts word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Body parts word search printable, challenge: 17 by 17 grid, 15 words, hardBody parts word search, challenge17 × 17 · 15 words · HardDownload PDF ↓

Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.

Body vocabulary is taught early and revisited constantly, in science, in PE and in first languages. Most of these words are short and phonetically simple, which makes this one of the better themes for a first word search.

It also works as a physical activity: find the word, then point to it. For very young children that pairing does more than the puzzle alone.

The four ready-made sheets use 33 of the forty words and leave out seven, SKULL, EYEBROW, EYELASH, FOREHEAD, KNUCKLE, PALM and SHIN, so a child who has finished all four can still meet new words by pressing New puzzle in the maker above.

It pairs obviously with a labeling activity. Find the words first, then label a drawn outline from the same list; the large-print sheet’s seven words, from HEAD and EYE down to LEG and FOOT, are enough for a first outline.

Which body part words have a silent letter

Seven of the forty body words have a consonant nobody says: the K in KNEE and KNUCKLE, the W in WRIST, the B in THUMB, the L in CALF and PALM, and the gh in THIGH. TONGUE goes further and ends in a ue that does nothing at all. These are the words a child can say perfectly and still misspell, because the sound gives no clue to the letters. KNEE is on the everyday sheet, while the challenge sheet carries five of the others, THUMB, WRIST, CALF, THIGH and TONGUE, which makes it the best sheet on the page for spelling practice as well as for searching.

Six more sound exactly like a different word: HAIR and hare, NOSE and knows, EYE and I, TOE and tow, HEEL and heal, WAIST and waste. Writing each pair side by side and asking which one belongs on a body is a quick spelling check that needs only the finished sheet, and HAIR, NOSE and TOE all share the everyday sheet, so a child doing that sheet meets three pairs at once. CALF and PALM have a second meaning without a second spelling, a young cow and a tree, and a child who only knows the other meaning may be puzzled to find them on a body list.

Which body parts sheet has the joints on it

The more-words body parts sheet is the one with the joints: ELBOW, SHOULDER, WRIST, ANKLE and HIP are all on it, along with JAW, a joint children use all day without thinking of it as one. KNEE is the big joint missing, because it sits on the everyday sheet instead. Finding each word and then bending that part of the body turns the puzzle into a short movement break, and asking which joints only bend one way, like an ELBOW, and which can swing around, like a SHOULDER or a HIP, leads straight into the difference between a hinge joint and a ball-and-socket joint.

Every word on the large-print sheet is three or four letters long, HEAD, ARM, LEG, HAND, FOOT, EYE and EAR, which makes it the gentlest of the four by some distance. FOOT is the one to stop on. The list keeps every body part singular except RIBS, so children find FOOT and TOOTH rather than feet and teeth, and those two are the only words on it whose plural changes the vowel in the middle. A child who has just learned to add s may well write foots, and a finished sheet is a good moment to put that right, with TOOTH waiting on the more-words and challenge sheets.

Common questions

Can this be done as a game rather than at a table?

Yes, and the large-print sheet suits it best, because all seven of its words, HEAD, ARM, LEG, HAND, FOOT, EYE and EAR, name a part a child can point to. Call a word out, let the child point, then find it; the everyday sheet keeps the game going with ten more, from NOSE and MOUTH to KNEE and TOE, as only EAR is on both.

Are the anatomical words too advanced?

The skeleton words stay off the first three sheets: SPINE and RIBS appear only on the challenge sheet, and SKULL and KNUCKLE are on the list of forty but on none of the four ready-made sheets. For a science unit on the skeleton the challenge sheet is the one to print, since it also carries HIP and JAW.

Is every word on the body parts word search suitable for young children?

Yes: the forty keep to the outside of the body, from HEAD and HAIR down to HEEL and TOE, and the only words that reach underneath are a handful of bones. There is no heart, lung or stomach on it, and nothing a parent would want to skip with a four-year-old.

More questions about the Word Search Maker