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Phrasal verbs Word Search

This phrasal verbs word search hides words like look for, give up, find out to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy phrasal verbs vocabulary activity.

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

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

  • THROWAWAY
  • BREAKDOWN
  • CALMDOWN
  • COMEBACK
  • SLOWDOWN
  • LOOKFOR
  • FINDOUT
  • CARRYON
  • STANDUP
  • GIVEUP
🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

Print this Phrasal verbs word search

Did you know?

look for
Readers could look for dord in a dictionary: the imaginary word arose when editors misread D or d as one word.
give up
Give up can mean surrender, but give it up for someone asks an audience for applause rather than defeat.
find out
Serendipity means a happy accidental discovery, and its name recalls story princes from Serendip, an older name for Sri Lanka.
throw away
A 1955 magazine celebrated throwaway living as freedom from washing dishes, praising disposable household goods that later became symbols of waste.
break down
Musicians can play a breakdown without anything failing: the word also names a lively dance or an energetic fiddle tune.
calm down
Calm comes from a word family connected with heat, an unexpected background for an instruction to cool your temper.
come back
Many Australian boomerangs weren't meant to come back, so returning is only one part of a much broader traditional tool's story.
slow down
When your eyes jump to a clock, its first second can seem stretched, an illusion that makes time seem to slow down.
carry on
Keep Calm and Carry On was printed for wartime Britain but rarely displayed, becoming familiar mainly through its revival many decades later.
stand up
It carries many senses: rise to your feet, support a cause, or fail to show for a planned date.
take off
The Wright Flyer took off from a wheeled dolly on a wooden rail, leaving its launch wheels behind on the ground.
run away
A runaway New Zealand sheep avoided shearing for six years, growing a roughly sixty-pound fleece before finally receiving a much-needed haircut.
cheer up
Rats can make laughter-like calls when tickled, using sounds too high for human ears but detectable with special recording equipment.
work out
President Calvin Coolidge worked out on an electric horse inside the White House, getting riding exercise without a horse in the room.
turn off
Some London streetlights still burn gas and use mechanical clocks to turn off, keeping old-fashioned lighting quietly operating among modern electric lamps.

Trivia

  1. What is the term for a verb joined with a small word like up or off that changes its meaning?

    A phrasal verb.

  2. Roughly how many phrasal verbs does the Cambridge Phrasal Verbs Dictionary cover: about 600, 6,000, or 60,000?

    About 6,000.

  3. When a phrasal verb takes an object, where must a pronoun like it go: before the particle, after it, or either?

    Before the particle (turn it off, not turn off it).

  4. Who popularized the term phrasal verb in print, in his 1925 book Words and Idioms?

    Logan Pearsall Smith.

  5. The little word added to a verb, such as up in stand up, is called what in grammar?

    A particle.

Trivia · 1 / 5
What is the term for a verb joined with a small word like up or off that changes its meaning?
A phrasal verb.

In their words

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.

Flora Lewis

One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.

Frank Smith

Is this phrasal verbs word search free to print?

This phrasal verbs word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like THROW AWAY, BREAK DOWN, CALM DOWN 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 Phrasal verbs word search
Printable Phrasal verbs Word Search — 10 words, Answer key included

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Sources: English phrasal verbs (Wikipedia) · OED: run, v. · 150 Most Common Phrasal Verbs (U of Minnesota) · Cambridge Phrasal Verbs Dictionary, 2nd ed.

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