Space Word Search
- COMET
- TELESCOPE
- URANUS
- MARS
- CRATER
- STAR
- SOLAR
- PULSAR
- STATION
- SUN
- MOON
- SATURN
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Your word search
Space Word Search, Answer Key
- COMET
- TELESCOPE
- URANUS
- MARS
- CRATER
- STAR
- SOLAR
- PULSAR
- STATION
- SUN
- MOON
- SATURN
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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.
Space word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Space word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Space word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Space 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.
The planets are here in order of curiosity rather than orbit, along with the words that come up whenever a class starts a space unit: orbit, gravity, eclipse, nebula. It is a vocabulary list as much as a puzzle.
Worth knowing: several entries are proper nouns children may not have seen written down, only heard. Finding Neptune letter by letter is often the first time a child reads it rather than recognizes it.
Space vocabulary mixes the familiar with the technical, and the sheets climb in that order: the large-print sheet sticks to words like sun, moon, star and comet, while nebula, asteroid and telescope first appear on the more-words sheet.
It sits naturally alongside a topic on the solar system. The planet names alone make a decent puzzle if you narrow the list, and putting them in order afterwards is a free second activity.
Why Earth is the only planet not named after a god
EARTH is the only planet on the list whose name does not come from a god: it comes from an old English word for the ground, while the other seven planets and PLUTO are named after Roman and Greek gods. MERCURY was the messenger of the Roman gods, VENUS the goddess of love, MARS the god of war, JUPITER their king, SATURN the god of farming, NEPTUNE the god of the sea and PLUTO the god of the underworld. URANUS is the odd one out among the rest, named after a Greek god of the sky rather than a Roman one.
Some of the other space words carry their Latin and Greek in plain sight. SOLAR and LUNAR come from the Latin words for sun and moon, which is why a solar eclipse involves the SUN and a lunar one the MOON, and both words are on the challenge sheet. ASTRONAUT is Greek for star sailor and ASTEROID means star-like, because through early telescopes asteroids looked like points of light. A child who learns that astro means star can then read ASTRONAUT, ASTEROID and, later on, astronomy without being taught each one separately.
Where are the rockets and landers in the space word search
The spacecraft words in the space word search are mostly on the challenge sheet, which carries SHUTTLE, LANDER and STATION along with LAUNCH, while ROCKET appears early, on the large-print and everyday sheets. CAPSULE, ROVER and AIRLOCK are on the list but on none of the four printed sheets, so a class doing a unit on crewed missions or on the rovers sent to other planets will want the maker at the top of the page, which draws on all forty. Typing your own list there, with ROVER, LANDER and CAPSULE at the top of it, gives a sheet built around the mission the class is actually studying.
The large-print space sheet is the one for looking up: SUN, MOON, STAR, PLANET, COMET, GALAXY and ROCKET are, the rocket aside, all things that can be seen from Earth without a telescope on the right night. Several planets look like bright stars, and on a dark night away from street lights the band of our own galaxy shows across the sky. MILKYWAY is on the list as one word, because a word search grid has no room for a space, which is worth knowing if a child meets it in the maker and wonders why it looks wrong.
Common questions
Pluto is not a planet anymore. Is that a mistake?
It is deliberate. Pluto stopped being counted as a planet in 2006 and children still ask about it, which makes being asked halfway through a puzzle a good moment to answer. The list keeps it among the planets rather than hiding it.
Which words tend to start a conversation?
QUASAR and NEBULA are the ones children find and then want explained. NEBULA first turns up on the more-words sheet and QUASAR only on the challenge sheet, so the question usually comes from an older child; PULSAR is on the list but on none of the four sheets, so add it in the maker if you want all three.
Are all eight planets on the space word search?
Yes, and all on one sheet: the everyday sheet has MERCURY, VENUS, EARTH, MARS, JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS and NEPTUNE, with PLUTO as a ninth. The large-print sheet has the word PLANET but no planet names, so a younger child who wants the planets should be moved up to the everyday sheet.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.