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Fruit Word Search

Fruit from the fruit bowl and further afield.

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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

Fruit Word Search

  • STRAWBERRY
  • AVOCADO
  • RASPBERRY
  • APPLE
  • FIG
  • APRICOT
  • LEMON
  • PLUM
  • LIME
  • QUINCE
  • DATE
  • POMELO

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Fruit Word Search, Answer Key

  • STRAWBERRY
  • AVOCADO
  • RASPBERRY
  • APPLE
  • FIG
  • APRICOT
  • LEMON
  • PLUM
  • LIME
  • QUINCE
  • DATE
  • POMELO

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.

Fruit word search printable, large print: 11 by 11 grid, 7 words, easyFruit word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓Fruit word search printable, everyday: 14 by 14 grid, 11 words, mediumFruit word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Fruit word search printable, more words: 15 by 15 grid, 14 words, mediumFruit word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Fruit word search printable, challenge: 17 by 17 grid, 15 words, hardFruit 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.

Fruit names are among the most useful early vocabulary because they are concrete, common, and children have opinions about them. The list mixes everyday fruit with ones they may only have seen in a picture book.

It suits a healthy-eating topic, and works as a shopping-list game at home: find the word, then say whether you have eaten it. That second step is what makes it stick.

The four sheets work down the list from the fruit bowl outwards: the large-print sheet uses the first seven words, APPLE to CHERRY, and the challenge sheet ends at CRANBERRY and BLACKBERRY. The last seven names, MULBERRY to PLANTAIN, are on no sheet and wait in the maker.

The names run from FIG, at three letters, to STRAWBERRY at ten, and the short ones are the hardest to spot. KIWI, FIG and DATE all sit on the more-words sheet, where four letters or fewer hide easily in a 15 by 15 grid.

Why six fruit names end in berry

Six of the forty fruits are BERRY with another word in front, STRAWBERRY, RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, CRANBERRY, BLACKBERRY and MULBERRY, and BERRY is on the list by itself as well. That makes the berries the easiest group on the page to spot once a child knows to look for the ending, and the hardest to keep apart, since BERRY, STRAWBERRY, RASPBERRY and BLUEBERRY all share the more-words sheet. Agree before starting whether a BERRY found inside a longer word counts, and let the answer key settle any argument. RASPBERRY has a silent P, and it is the one to spell aloud before anyone begins.

Botany does not agree with the names. A strawberry is not a true berry, because its seeds sit on the outside, and a raspberry is not one either, while a banana, which nobody calls a berry, is one. Two other names hide a shorter fruit: PINEAPPLE has APPLE inside it but is neither a pine nor an apple, and GRAPEFRUIT has GRAPE, a name usually explained by the way the fruit hangs in bunches. Four of the forty are ten letters long, STRAWBERRY, GRAPEFRUIT, BLACKBERRY and CLEMENTINE, which makes them the longest words on the list.

Which fruit on the sheets grows in the tropics

The challenge sheet of the fruit word search includes six tropical fruits from the list, PAPAYA, GUAVA, LYCHEE, POMELO, AVOCADO and PASSION, while BANANA, MANGO, PINEAPPLE and COCONUT, the more familiar ones, are spread across the three earlier sheets. The same challenge sheet also has RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, BLACKBERRY and CURRANT, which grow happily in a British garden, so it sorts neatly into two columns: fruit that could grow outside the classroom window, and fruit that has to travel. Adding where each tropical one comes from turns the finished sheet into a short geography task.

Seven of the forty are citrus fruit: ORANGE, LEMON and LIME on the large-print sheet, GRAPEFRUIT on the more-words and challenge sheets, POMELO on the challenge sheet, and TANGERINE and CLEMENTINE on the list but on none of the four printed sheets. The grapefruit is a cross between the pomelo and the orange, so a child on the challenge sheet finds one of its parents on the same sheet. TANGERINE and CLEMENTINE are both kinds of mandarin, which is why they are so hard to tell apart in a fruit bowl, and a sheet made in the maker with all seven is a good companion to a tasting session.

Common questions

Which of these are not really fruit?

RHUBARB is the only word on the list that is not botanically a fruit: it is a leaf stalk cooked as if it were one. AVOCADO is the reverse, a fruit eaten as a vegetable, and PLANTAIN is a banana usually cooked rather than eaten raw. Only AVOCADO is on a ready-made sheet, the challenge sheet, so add RHUBARB and PLANTAIN in the maker for a lesson on the difference.

What suits a child who has just started reading?

The large-print sheet suits a new reader: it has seven words, APPLE, BANANA, ORANGE, GRAPE, LEMON, LIME and CHERRY, in an 11 by 11 grid. Every word runs left to right or top to bottom, with nothing diagonal or backwards, so the reading is the exercise rather than the obstacle.

What does PASSION mean on the fruit word search?

PASSION is short for passion fruit, the round fruit with a wrinkled purple skin and a mass of seeds inside. It is on the challenge sheet, and a child who finds it may need telling that here it means a fruit rather than a strong feeling.

More questions about the Word Search Maker