Large Print Weather Word Search
- HURRICANE
- MONSOON
- CHILLY
- SUNNY
- TYPHOON
- GUSTY
- HEATWAVE
- RAINBOW
- DRIZZLE
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Large print word search
Four free large print word searches, from 8 birds on a 10 by 10 grid to 12 musical instruments on a 12 by 12, with bold letters at 26 to 33 point and each answer key on its own page.
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Large Print Weather Word Search, Answer Key
- HURRICANE
- MONSOON
- CHILLY
- SUNNY
- TYPHOON
- GUSTY
- HEATWAVE
- RAINBOW
- DRIZZLE
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.
Large print word search, birds10 × 10 · 8 words · Easy, across and down only · 33 point lettersDownload PDF ↓
Large print word search, food11 × 11 · 9 words · Easy, across and down only · 30 point lettersDownload PDF ↓
Large print word search, nature11 × 11 · 10 words · Medium, adds diagonals · 28 point lettersDownload PDF ↓
Large print word search, musical instruments12 × 12 · 12 words · Hard, adds backwards words · 26 point lettersDownload 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.
Large print here means the letters themselves, not only the grid around them. A standard word search on this site sets its letters at 14 point at most, whatever the size of the grid, so a smaller grid there buys roomier squares and the same small type. These sheets set each letter in bold at two thirds of the width of its square: 33 point on the birds sheet, whose squares are about 0.69 of an inch across, down to 26 point on the 12 by 12, whose squares are just over half an inch.
They are for anyone who finds ordinary puzzle print hard work: readers with low vision or tired eyes, someone solving without reading glasses to hand, and activity coordinators printing one sheet for a whole room. The letters are near black and the squares a light gray outline, so the contrast sits in the letters and the lines only keep the rows straight. The word list under the grid is bold as well, at 20 point in three columns.
The four sheets change one thing at a time. Birds is the gentlest: eight names, ROBIN to HERON, running only across and down. Food keeps to across and down on an 11 by 11 with nine words, and Nature, the same size, has ten and adds the two diagonals that slope downward. Musical instruments is the hardest, twelve words on a 12 by 12 where a word may also run backwards or upward, from HARP at four letters to ACCORDION and HARMONICA at nine.
The maker above opens in large print on the weather list, nine words on an 11 by 11, and its Print size control turns any of its word lists, or a list you type, into large print. It keeps the grid to 10, 11 or 12 squares and the list to twelve words, says how big the letters will print before you download, and leaves the border off, so nothing takes room from the letters. The answer key prints just as large, on a page of its own and without a frame.
How big the letters on a large print word search print
Each letter in a large print grid is set at a type size two thirds of its square’s width, in bold Helvetica, and the squares are as wide as the page allows once the word list has its room below the grid. Two things decide the size, then: how many squares the grid has across, and how many rows of three words the list needs. The table gives the size the PDF prints for every grid and list the maker allows, from 10 to 12 squares and up to twelve words.
Points are the printer’s measure, 72 to the inch, and a type size is measured on the whole body of the type rather than on the capital alone, so the capitals themselves are smaller: in Helvetica a capital is about seven tenths of the type size. The 34 point letters of a 10 by 10 with six words or fewer stand about a third of an inch tall, and the 26 point letters of a 12 by 12 with ten to twelve words about a quarter of an inch. Every size in the table is more than half again the 14 point at which a standard sheet’s letters stop.
| Grid | Up to 6 words | 7 to 9 words | 10 to 12 words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 by 10 | 34 point | 33 point | 31 point |
| 11 by 11 | 31 point | 30 point | 28 point |
| 12 by 12 | 28 point | 28 point | 26 point |
Which way the words run on each large print sheet
On the birds and food sheets every word reads across from left to right or down from top to bottom, and nothing runs on a slant. The nature sheet adds the two diagonals that slope downward: MAPLE starts in the top right corner and runs down to the left, and RIVER runs down to the right from the second row. Its other eight words, CEDAR to PEBBLE, keep to across and down, so a solver meeting diagonals for the first time has only two to find.
The musical instruments sheet allows all eight directions and uses every one of them. Only TRUMPET, HARMONICA, CELLO and ACCORDION read the ordinary way, across or down. FIDDLE reads from right to left along the bottom row, PIANO and VIOLIN run straight up, GUITAR, CLARINET and ORGAN climb on a diagonal, and HARP and BANJO slope downward, one each way. For a helper checking a solver’s progress without the key, that is the list to keep in mind.
Printing large print word searches for a group
Print at 100 percent, which some printers call Actual size, rather than Fit to page. The sheet is already laid out inside the margins of US Letter, and fitting it to the page shrinks every letter a little. Each PDF is two pages, the puzzle and then its answer key, so for a room of solvers print the first page as many times as there are people and the key once.
The four sheets mix well at one table, since each is a different subject and a different step: birds and food for anyone who wants every word across or down, nature for a first try at diagonals, and musical instruments for a solver who likes a hunt. A highlighter or a soft felt tip marks a found word without hiding its letters, which matters because words in these grids share squares: on the birds sheet SPARROW runs down through the O of ROBIN and ends on the W that starts WREN.
Common questions
What font size is a large print word search?
On this site the grid letters of a large print word search print at 26 to 34 point in bold Helvetica, depending on the grid and the length of the list, and the word list at up to 20 point. Large print for reading is usually set at 16 to 18 point, so even the smallest grid letters here are well above it. A standard word search on the site prints its letters at 14 point at most.
Can I make a large print word search with my own words?
Yes. Choose Write my own in the maker on this page and type up to twelve words of three letters or more, none longer than the grid is wide, so at most twelve letters on a 12 by 12. The maker stays in large print and says how big the letters will print, and the words stay in your browser: nothing typed is sent anywhere.
How is a large print word search different from the Large print sheet on a theme page?
The sheet called Large print on each of this site’s word search theme pages is one of that page’s roomiest, ten or eleven squares a side with six or seven words, but its letters print at 14 point like every standard sheet, and it wears a border. A large print word search sets the letters themselves larger: the sheets on this page print them at 26 to 33 point in bold, without a border, with the word list at 20 point. Any theme’s list can be printed the same way by picking it in the maker on this page.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.