Chemical Elements Word Search

About this puzzle

This puzzle draws its words straight from the periodic table, choosing elements you meet in everyday life. There are the gases that fill balloons and signs, Hydrogen, Helium, Neon, and Oxygen, the building blocks of living things like Carbon, Nitrogen, and Calcium, and the metals people have used for thousands of years, including Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, and Mercury.

Each note below lists the element's symbol and atomic number, plus a fact about where you find it or how it got its name. That makes this chemical elements word search a handy companion to a periodic table unit in middle school, and a fun challenge for anyone who wants to learn why gold is Au and iron is Fe.

The 32 words in this puzzle

Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.

In every version (12)

Aluminum

Symbol Al, atomic number 13. Aluminum is the most common metal in Earth's crust. It is light and does not rust, so it is used for cans, foil, and airplanes.

Calcium

Symbol Ca, atomic number 20. Calcium helps build strong bones and teeth. It is also found in chalk, limestone, seashells, and eggshells.

Carbon

Symbol C, atomic number 6. Carbon is found in every living thing. Diamonds and pencil graphite are both made of pure carbon, arranged in different ways.

Copper

Symbol Cu, atomic number 29, from the Latin cuprum. Copper carries electricity well and is used in wires. The Statue of Liberty is covered in copper that has turned green.

Gold

Symbol Au, atomic number 79, from the Latin aurum. Gold does not rust or tarnish, and it is so soft and stretchy that it can be hammered into sheets thinner than paper.

Helium

Symbol He, atomic number 2. Helium was first detected in sunlight in 1868, before it was found on Earth, and is named after the Greek word for Sun.

Hydrogen

Symbol H, atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element and the most common in the universe. Stars like the Sun shine by fusing hydrogen into helium.

Iron

Symbol Fe, atomic number 26, from the Latin ferrum. Earth's core is mostly iron, and iron in your blood carries oxygen around your body.

Neon

Symbol Ne, atomic number 10. Neon glows reddish orange when electricity passes through it, which made it famous in bright signs. Its name comes from the Greek word for new.

Nitrogen

Symbol N, atomic number 7. Nitrogen makes up about 78 percent of the air we breathe. Plants need it to grow, which is why it is in fertilizer.

Oxygen

Symbol O, atomic number 8. Oxygen makes up about 21 percent of the air, and people and animals need it to breathe. It is also part of every water molecule.

Silver

Symbol Ag, atomic number 47, from the Latin argentum. Silver conducts electricity and heat better than any other metal and has long been used for coins and jewelry.

Added in Medium and Hard (8)

Chlorine

Symbol Cl, atomic number 17. Chlorine is a greenish yellow gas. Small, safe amounts of it are used to keep swimming pools and drinking water clean.

Lead

Symbol Pb, atomic number 82, from the Latin plumbum, which also gave us the word plumber. Pencil lead is not lead at all; it is graphite, a form of carbon.

Mercury

Symbol Hg, atomic number 80. Mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature. Its symbol comes from hydrargyrum, a Greek-based word meaning watery silver.

Nickel

Symbol Ni, atomic number 28. Nickel is a tough, shiny metal that resists rust. The US coin called a nickel is actually 75 percent copper and only 25 percent nickel.

Potassium

Symbol K, atomic number 19. The K comes from kalium, its Latin name. Bananas are a well-known source of potassium, which helps muscles and nerves work.

Silicon

Symbol Si, atomic number 14. Joined with oxygen, silicon forms silica, the main ingredient in most sand and glass. It is also used to make computer chips. Silicon Valley in California is named after it.

Sodium

Symbol Na, atomic number 11. Sodium is a soft metal that reacts strongly with water. Combined with chlorine, it forms sodium chloride, ordinary table salt.

Zinc

Symbol Zn, atomic number 30. Zinc coats steel to keep it from rusting, a process called galvanizing. US pennies minted after 1982 are mostly zinc with a thin copper coating.

Added in Hard (12)

Argon

Symbol Ar, atomic number 18. Argon makes up almost 1 percent of the air. It hardly reacts with anything, and its name comes from the Greek word for lazy.

Cobalt

Symbol Co, atomic number 27. Cobalt compounds give glass and pottery a deep blue color called cobalt blue. Its name comes from kobold, a German word for a goblin.

Fluorine

Symbol F, atomic number 9. Fluorine is the most reactive of all the elements. Compounds called fluorides are added to toothpaste to help protect teeth from cavities.

Iodine

Symbol I, atomic number 53. Iodine is added to table salt because the body needs a little of it to make thyroid hormones. Heated solid iodine gives off a purple vapor.

Lithium

Symbol Li, atomic number 3. Lithium is the lightest metal and soft enough to cut with a knife. It powers the rechargeable batteries in phones and laptops.

Magnesium

Symbol Mg, atomic number 12. Magnesium burns with a brilliant white light and is used in fireworks and flares. It is also found in the green pigment chlorophyll.

Phosphorus

Symbol P, atomic number 15. Phosphorus is found in bones, teeth, and DNA. Red phosphorus is used on the striking strip of a matchbox.

Platinum

Symbol Pt, atomic number 78. Platinum is a rare, silvery metal that resists rust. It is used in jewelry and in car parts called catalytic converters that clean exhaust.

Sulfur

Symbol S, atomic number 16. Sulfur is a bright yellow nonmetal often found near volcanoes and hot springs. A gas made with sulfur gives rotten eggs their smell.

Titanium

Symbol Ti, atomic number 22. Titanium is strong like steel but much lighter, so it is used in airplanes, bike frames, and replacement hips. It is named after the Titans of Greek myth.

Tungsten

Symbol W, atomic number 74, from its other name, wolfram. Tungsten has the highest melting point of any metal, which is why it was used for glowing light bulb filaments.

Uranium

Symbol U, atomic number 92. Uranium is a heavy, radioactive metal used as fuel in nuclear power plants. It was named after the planet Uranus, discovered a few years earlier.

A few facts to share while you solve

• Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table in 1869 and left gaps for elements no one had discovered yet. Several were later found, matching his predictions.
• Only two elements are liquid at room temperature: mercury, a metal, and bromine, a nonmetal.
• The metal gallium melts at about 86 degrees Fahrenheit, which is cooler than body temperature, so it can melt in a warm hand.

Four versions of this puzzle

Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.

Hard and large print versions

Hard chemical elements word search: all 32 words on a 16 × 16 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.

Large print chemical elements word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.

Printing this word search

Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.

How to play online

1. Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
2. Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
3. Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.

Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.