Shapes Word Search
- CYLINDER
- HEXAGON
- SPIRAL
- ELLIPSE
- CIRCLE
- TRAPEZOID
- STAR
- PYRAMID
- DIAMOND
- CRESCENT
- RECTANGLE
- OCTAGON
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Your word search
Shapes Word Search, Answer Key
- CYLINDER
- HEXAGON
- SPIRAL
- ELLIPSE
- CIRCLE
- TRAPEZOID
- STAR
- PYRAMID
- DIAMOND
- CRESCENT
- RECTANGLE
- OCTAGON
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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.
Shapes word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Shapes word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Shapes word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Shapes 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.
This list keeps two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids together (circle and sphere, square and cube), which is precisely the distinction children are asked to make and reliably mix up.
A finished sheet becomes a sorting exercise: which of these are flat and which are solid? That is a better use of ten minutes than the word hunt on its own.
Shape names carry real mathematical vocabulary (pentagon, hexagon, rhombus), that children meet in geometry long before anyone asks them to spell it.
Drawing each shape as it is found is hardest on the challenge sheet, where TORUS, the shape of a doughnut, and HELIX, the twist of a spring, need a sense of depth that SPIRAL, RING and LOOP, their flat cousins on the same sheet, do not.
What the gon in pentagon, hexagon and octagon means
The gon at the end of PENTAGON, HEXAGON and OCTAGON comes from the Greek word for angle, and the front of each word is a Greek number, so the three names mean five angles, six angles and eight angles. POLYGON uses the same ending with poly, meaning many, which is why it covers any flat shape with straight sides. Once a child knows the pattern, the name says how many corners to draw before the shape has even been seen. Two everyday objects make the point well: each cell of a honeycomb is a HEXAGON, and in many countries, Britain included, a stop sign is an OCTAGON.
TRIANGLE and RECTANGLE build their names from ANGLE, which is on the list too: three angles, and right angles, from the Latin rectus, meaning straight or right. The Greek counting carries on beyond these sheets into words a child will meet later, such as heptagon for seven sides and decagon for ten, and asking what a seven-sided shape might be called is a fair test of whether the pattern has stuck. The everyday sheet is the one to print alongside this, since PENTAGON, HEXAGON and OCTAGON all sit on it together, next to five solid shapes that make a useful contrast.
Can the shapes word search teach faces, edges and vertices
The shapes sheets can open a lesson on faces, edges and vertices, but EDGE, VERTEX and FACET are not on any of the four printed sheets: they sit with ANGLE, CURVE, SEGMENT and QUADRANT in the last seven words of the list, the words for describing a shape rather than naming one. The everyday sheet is the nearest fit, because it carries five solids, CONE, CUBE, SPHERE, CYLINDER and PYRAMID. Find those first, then pass around the real objects and count: a CUBE has six faces, twelve edges and eight vertices, numbers that are easier to believe once they have been counted on a real box rather than read off a board.
To get the describing words onto paper, switch the maker at the top of the page to your own words and type the solids in with EDGE, VERTEX and face, which is not on the list; FACET, which is, means one of the small flat faces on a cut jewel. The more-words sheet suits the follow-up lesson, since its fourteen words keep four of the same solids and add PRISM and WEDGE, alongside flat outlines such as CRESCENT, ARROW and CROSS. CORNER, the everyday word for a vertex, is on the challenge sheet, a useful bridge between the word children already use and the one the lesson wants.
Common questions
Does this cover the shapes taught at school?
Mostly, yes: the large-print sheet has CIRCLE, SQUARE, TRIANGLE and RECTANGLE, with OVAL, STAR and HEART, and the everyday sheet adds PENTAGON, HEXAGON, OCTAGON and five solids. The list has no kite or parallelogram, though, so a lesson on quadrilaterals needs kite and parallelogram typed into the maker beside RHOMBUS and TRAPEZOID, while HELIX and TORUS on the challenge sheet go well beyond elementary school.
Why are CUBE, SPHERE and PYRAMID in with the flat shapes?
Because the list mixes flat and solid on purpose, and only the large-print sheet is entirely flat: the everyday sheet puts five solids among its eleven words and the more-words sheet six among its fourteen, counting PRISM and WEDGE. No single sheet holds both CIRCLE and SPHERE, or SQUARE and CUBE, so print the large-print sheet with the everyday one and ask how many squares it takes to cover a cube.
Is TRAPEZOID the same shape as a trapezium?
Yes: TRAPEZOID is the American name for the shape British schools call a trapezium, a four-sided shape with one pair of parallel sides. It is on the challenge sheet, so a class taught trapezium will meet it as a new name for a shape they already know.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.