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Vegetables Word Search

Vegetables from the garden and the plate.

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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

Vegetables Word Search

  • LEEK
  • CHICORY
  • GARLIC
  • ARTICHOKE
  • ASPARAGUS
  • OKRA
  • PEPPER
  • SHALLOT
  • TURNIP
  • ENDIVE
  • CRESS
  • FENNEL

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Vegetables Word Search, Answer Key

  • LEEK
  • CHICORY
  • GARLIC
  • ARTICHOKE
  • ASPARAGUS
  • OKRA
  • PEPPER
  • SHALLOT
  • TURNIP
  • ENDIVE
  • CRESS
  • FENNEL

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.

Vegetables word search printable, large print: 11 by 11 grid, 7 words, easyVegetables word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓Vegetables word search printable, everyday: 14 by 14 grid, 11 words, mediumVegetables word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Vegetables word search printable, more words: 15 by 15 grid, 14 words, mediumVegetables word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓Vegetables word search printable, challenge: 17 by 17 grid, 15 words, hardVegetables 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.

Vegetable vocabulary is harder than fruit for most children, simply because they meet the words less often. That makes it a more genuine exercise, and a natural companion to a growing-things or healthy-eating unit.

Several entries are longer than they look, CAULIFLOWER, CUCUMBER, BROCCOLI, so give the grid a bit of room. Fourteen squares upward keeps them placing cleanly.

It works well before cooking or a trip to the store. Finding the word and then handling the actual vegetable connects the two more firmly than either does alone, and PARSNIP, OKRA and TURNIP are the ones that want reading aloud before anyone starts.

Why vegetable names are harder than fruit

Forty vegetables, and the spellings are harder than the fruit list by a clear margin. BROCCOLI has a double C and a single L, and most children put them the other way around. CAULIFLOWER is eleven letters and hides FLOWER at the end, which is worth pointing out because it is a compound in disguise. ZUCCHINI, EGGPLANT and ARUGULA are the American names, so a class taught courgette, aubergine and rocket will meet them as new words rather than as spellings of ones they know.

PEA and YAM are the only three-letter words on the list, but only PEA reaches a ready-made sheet: the large-print one, whose seven words, CARROT, POTATO, ONION, PEA, BEAN, CORN and CELERY, run no longer than six letters to suit its eleven-square grid. YAM, like ENDIVE, is left for the maker, and ENDIVE is the one to say aloud if you add it, since even adults do not agree on how.

Which vegetable sheet to print before a shopping trip

The four sheets walk down the list in order, each overlapping the one before. Large print, eleven squares with words running only across and down, has the first seven words. Everyday, fourteen squares, runs from CELERY to TURNIP, so it shares CELERY with large print. More words, fifteen squares, runs from CABBAGE to SPROUT and repeats five everyday words. The challenge sheet, seventeen squares and the only one with backwards words, runs from GARLIC to SHALLOT, repeats eight from more words, and adds seven that no other sheet carries.

Each sheet is a two-page PDF, the grid first and the answer key second, so the key can stay with the adult. Before a shopping trip the everyday sheet is the practical one, since PEPPER, TOMATO, LETTUCE, SPINACH and BROCCOLI are all on it and all easy to spot in a supermarket once they have been circled.

Common questions

Will this get a child to eat any of them?

On its own, no, but it makes the names familiar before the food arrives. A child who has circled ASPARAGUS or PARSNIP has at least read the word before meeting the vegetable. ASPARAGUS is only on the challenge sheet and PARSNIP is on the more words and challenge sheets, so choose the sheet that carries the vegetable you are working toward.

Which words will be new to most children?

Among the words on the sheets, ASPARAGUS, ARTICHOKE, CHARD, ARUGULA and SHALLOT are the likeliest to be new, and all five appear only on the challenge sheet. CHICORY, ENDIVE and GOURD are rarer still but are on no ready-made sheet, so type them into the maker at the top of the page if you want them.

Are the vegetable names British or American?

Mostly American. ZUCCHINI, EGGPLANT and ARUGULA, the American words for courgette, aubergine and rocket, appear only on the challenge sheet, so the other three sheets avoid them. BEET, the American form of beetroot, is on the everyday and more words sheets. For British names instead, paste your own list into the maker at the top of the page.

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