School & Learning

Prepositions Word Search

This prepositions word search hides words like under, over, above to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy prepositions vocabulary activity.

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

School & Learning

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BETWEEN
OUTSIDE
BEHIND
BESIDE
INSIDE
AROUND
UNDER
ABOVE
BELOW
OVER

🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!

True stories

The rule no one could keep

London, England

In London, England, in 1672, the poet John Dryden quietly invented one of grammar's most stubborn rules. Editing his own writing, he decided that sentences should not end with a preposition, mostly because Latin never did. English speakers had been ending sentences that way happily for centuries. Schoolteachers later turned Dryden's private preference into an iron law, and millions of students learned to twist their words to avoid it. Today most language scholars call the rule a myth, noting that even careful writers break it constantly. The story is a gentle reminder that grammar is not handed down from above; people make it, and people can let it go.

The dictionary picks a fight

Springfield, Massachusetts

In February 2024, Merriam-Webster posted a cheeky note on Instagram: it is permissible in English for a preposition to be what you end a sentence with. The sentence broke the old rule on purpose, ending on with. Thousands of people argued in the replies. Some thanked the dictionary for freeing them from twisting their words, while others insisted the trailing preposition still sounded careless. The editors explained the ban was never real grammar, just an old attempt to bend English toward Latin. Lexicographer Ellen Jovin noted that almost nothing starts a public quarrel faster than a small claim about prepositions.

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Did you know?

under: Underwhelmed sounds like overwhelmed's ancient twin, but English added the humorous opposite centuries after the older word had already become established.
over: Older English called the day after tomorrow overmorrow, packing four words into one forgotten label for something only two days away.
above: Aboveboard originally suggested keeping hands where others could see them, giving a word for honesty a place at the table.
below: Below the salt once described lower-status diners, seated farther from an important salt container on a formal table.
behind: Behind built from be plus hind, the old word for rear; the same hind survives in hindsight and hind legs.
beside: Ecstasy's Greek ancestor meant standing outside yourself, sharing the image behind beside yourself: an overwhelming feeling pictured as leaving your own body.
between: Between traces to Old English be tweonum, meaning by the two, so its hidden core is the number two.
inside: Tagalog can insert um inside bili, buy, to form bumili, showing that grammar can change the middle of a word.
outside: A nine-dot puzzle needs lines outside its apparent square to connect every dot with four straight strokes, without lifting the pencil.
around: Magellan led the first world-circling expedition, but Elcano completed the voyage, giving the famous journey around Earth two different leaders.
through: Through and thorough were once versions of the same word, before one became a route and the other a description of completeness.
across: Across hides the word cross: it began as on cross, meaning in a crossed position, before shrinking into one tidy word.
against: Against picked up a final t that was never original; the same stray t stuck to amongst and amidst too.
toward: Toward once also meant promising or willing, leaving untoward to describe something awkward, unexpected, or unfavorable.
before: Traditional BC and AD dating places 1 BC directly before AD 1, skipping year zero even though modern number lines include it.

Trivia

A preposition usually sits in front of which kind of word to show position, direction, or time?
A noun (or pronoun).
Three of the ten most frequent words in all of English are short prepositions. Can you name them?
Of, to, and in.
What grammatical name is given to a multi-word verb like look after or run into, built from a verb plus a particle?
A phrasal verb.
The old rule against ending a sentence with a preposition was borrowed from which classical language's grammar?
Latin.
A preposition plus its noun, such as in the box, forms what kind of phrase?
A prepositional phrase.

Trivia · 1 / 5

A preposition usually sits in front of which kind of word to show position, direction, or time?

A noun (or pronoun).

In their words

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

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

Is this prepositions word search free to print?

This prepositions word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like BETWEEN, OUTSIDE, BEHIND 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.

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