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Dinosaur Word Search

This dinosaur word search hides words like fossil, dinosaur, jurassic to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy dinosaur vocabulary activity.

10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF

Sports & Play
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Tap the first and last letter of a word — or use arrow keys and Enter. Dragging works too.

  • TRICERATOPS
  • CRETACEOUS
  • HERBIVORE
  • CARNIVORE
  • DINOSAUR
  • JURASSIC
  • SKELETON
  • PREDATOR
  • EXTINCT
  • FOSSIL
🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

Print this Dinosaur word search

Did you know?

fossil
Tiny fossil structures helped scientists reconstruct a dinosaur's ginger-striped tail, revealing color as well as the outline of an ancient animal.
dinosaur
The word means terrible lizard, coined in 1842 by Richard Owen, though dinosaurs were not lizards at all.
jurassic
The Jurassic period is named after the Jura Mountains between France and Switzerland, where its limestone was first studied.
skeleton
Complete dinosaur skeletons are extremely rare, so many museum mounts fill the missing gaps with sculpted or cast replacement bones.
predator
Scientists found a fossil mammal with young dinosaur bones in its stomach, showing some mammals ate dinosaurs instead of only fleeing them.
extinct
Dinosaurs didn't all vanish: birds are surviving dinosaurs, carrying the old group's story into today's gardens and city skies.
herbivore
Duck-billed dinosaurs could store hundreds of replacement teeth in their jaws, giving herbivores fresh chewing surfaces underneath teeth worn down by plants.
carnivore
A Tyrannosaurus bite could crush with about 8,000 pounds of force, strong enough to splinter bone and swallow the pieces.
triceratops
Triceratops grew three horns and a huge bony frill, and a single skull could stretch over seven feet long.
cretaceous
Cretaceous means chalky, named for chalk deposits formed from tiny marine organisms rather than from dinosaur bones.
stegosaurus
Stegosaurus had a tiny brain for its body, but the old idea that it needed a second brain was mistaken.
velociraptor
The real Velociraptor was only about the size of a turkey and almost certainly covered in feathers.
pterodactyl
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, not dinosaurs, and the largest had wingspans as wide as a small airplane.
spinosaurus
Spinosaurus's first fossils were destroyed in 1944, leaving photographs and drawings to preserve details later researchers couldn't check against the lost bones.

Trivia

  1. What word do scientists use for a person who studies fossils and ancient life?

    A paleontologist.

  2. Which is older as a period: the Jurassic or the Cretaceous?

    The Jurassic.

  3. Modern birds are widely considered the living descendants of which dinosaur group?

    Theropods (meat-eating dinosaurs).

  4. Roughly how many millions of years ago did the giant dinosaurs die out?

    About 66 million years ago.

  5. What hard objects did some plant-eating dinosaurs swallow to help grind food in their stomachs?

    Stones, called gastroliths.

Trivia · 1 / 5
What word do scientists use for a person who studies fossils and ancient life?
A paleontologist.

In their words

I am well known through the whole of Europe.

Mary Anning

When the dinosaurs fell at the end of the Cretaceous, they were not a senile, moribund group that had played out its evolutionary options.

Robert T. Bakker

Is this dinosaur word search free to print?

This dinosaur word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like TRICERATOPS, CRETACEOUS, HERBIVORE hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.

Print this Dinosaur word search
Printable Dinosaur Word Search — 10 words, Answer key included

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Sources: Leonardo the dinosaur mummy (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum) · Mary Anning: the unsung hero of fossil discovery (Natural History Museum) · Velociraptor facts (Natural History Museum) · The word dinosaur is coined, 1842 (Linda Hall Library)

Word list, facts & trivia researched and compiled by Sam Letterman — spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.