About this puzzle
Most of this list is what you'd find in a lunchbox or a fruit bowl: apple, banana, grape, orange, strawberry. Then there are a few curveballs. Tomato and avocado are fruits to a botanist, the banana counts as a berry, and the strawberry, oddly, does not. The notes under the puzzle explain each one in kid-friendly terms, so the sheet doubles as a mini science lesson.
It suits preschool and early elementary classrooms, a healthy-eating unit, or a quiet table at a summer picnic. Grown-ups solving alongside kids may learn something too, since the answer to whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable once went all the way to the Supreme Court. Print a copy for each child and let them color the fruits they find.
The 24 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Apple
- There are thousands of apple varieties. Seeds from an apple won't grow into the same variety, so orchards copy favorite trees by grafting branches onto rootstock.
- Banana
- Botanically, a banana is a berry. The banana plant isn't a tree either; it is a giant herb whose trunk is made of tightly wrapped leaf stalks.
- Blueberry
- Blueberries are native to North America and are true berries in the botanical sense. Their blue color comes from natural pigments called anthocyanins.
- Cherry
- Cherries are stone fruits, like peaches and plums, with one hard pit in the middle. The tale of young George Washington chopping down a cherry tree was made up by an early biographer.
- Grape
- Grapes grow in bunches on woody vines. Raisins are simply dried grapes, and it takes roughly four pounds of fresh grapes to make one pound of raisins.
- Kiwi
- Kiwifruit is native to China and was once called the Chinese gooseberry. New Zealand growers renamed it after their national bird, the small brown kiwi.
- Lemon
- Lemons get their sour taste from citric acid. Sailors once carried lemon and lime juice on long voyages to prevent scurvy, a disease caused by missing vitamin C.
- Orange
- The fruit came first. English speakers named the color orange after the fruit; before that, they usually described orange things as yellow-red.
- Peach
- Peaches originally come from China. Georgia is nicknamed the Peach State, even though California grows far more peaches.
- Pear
- Pears ripen best after they are picked, so stores often sell them firm and let them soften on the counter at home. They are close relatives of apples.
- Strawberry
- Despite its name, a strawberry is not a true berry. The tiny seeds on the outside are called achenes, and each one is technically a separate little fruit.
- Watermelon
- A watermelon is about 92 percent water. It belongs to the gourd family, which makes it a relative of cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Avocado
- An avocado is a fruit with one large seed, and botanists classify it as a berry. Its bumpy green skin earned it the old nickname alligator pear.
- Cantaloupe
- A cantaloupe is a melon with a bumpy, netted rind and sweet orange flesh. Like watermelons, cantaloupes belong to the gourd family along with cucumbers and squash.
- Coconut
- A coconut is not a true nut. Botanists call it a drupe, the same type of fruit as a peach, with a hard inner shell around the seed.
- Lime
- Limes are small green citrus fruits, usually picked before they turn yellow. British sailors drank lime juice to prevent scurvy, which earned them the nickname limeys.
- Mango
- Mangoes have been grown in South Asia for thousands of years and are the national fruit of India. They are related to cashews and pistachios.
- Plum
- Plums are stone fruits with a single hard pit in the middle. They come in purple, red, yellow, and green, and a dried plum is called a prune.
- Raspberry
- A raspberry is made of many tiny round parts called drupelets, each with its own seed. When you pick one, its core stays on the plant, leaving the berry hollow.
- Tomato
- Botanically, a tomato is a fruit because it grows from a flower and holds seeds. In 1893, the US Supreme Court still ruled it a vegetable for tax purposes.
Added in Hard (4)
- Apricot
- Apricots are small, fuzzy orange stone fruits related to peaches and plums. Fresh apricots bruise easily, so many are dried, which keeps them sweet for months.
- Cranberry
- Cranberries grow on low vines in sandy bogs. At harvest time many farms flood the bogs, and the floating berries are gathered from the top of the water.
- Papaya
- Papayas grow in warm tropical places. Inside the orange flesh is a hollow center packed with shiny black seeds, and the fruit is rich in vitamin C.
- Pomegranate
- A pomegranate holds hundreds of juicy seed pods called arils. Its name comes from Latin words meaning apple with many seeds.
A few facts to share while you solve
- To a botanist, a fruit is the part of a flowering plant that grows from the flower and holds the seeds. By that definition, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, and green beans are all fruits.
- Ripe cranberries have small pockets of air inside, so they bounce. Some growers use bounce boards to sort good berries from soft ones.
- Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and strawberries all belong to the same plant family as roses.
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.
| Version | Words | Grid | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 14 × 14 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 24 | 16 × 16 | Every word, in all eight directions including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. |
| Large print | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words on a small grid with big letters. No backwards words. |
Hard and large print versions
Hard fruit word search: all 24 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 fruit 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
- Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
- Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
- 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.
Questions and answers
Why is a tomato in a fruit word search?
Because botanically it is one. A fruit grows from a flower and contains seeds, and tomatoes, avocados, and cucumbers all fit that rule. Cooks call tomatoes vegetables because they taste savory, which is why the question is so often argued. It makes a great discussion starter after kids finish the puzzle.
Is this fruit word search good for preschool or kindergarten?
Yes, with the Easy or Large print version. Both use 12 short, familiar fruits like kiwi, pear, and apple that kids have usually tasted. Pre-readers can work with a grown-up who says each word aloud, and the Medium and Hard versions add longer names like cantaloupe and pomegranate for a satisfying stretch.
How many fruits are hidden in the puzzle?
Easy and large print use 12 everyday fruits, medium uses 20, and hard uses all 24. The list leans on common lunchbox fruits but adds a few, such as pomegranate, avocado, and tomato, that spark questions about what really counts as a fruit.
Is there an answer key for this fruit word search?
Yes. Choose Print / PDF above the puzzle and keep “Add an answer key page” ticked. The key prints on its own page, with every word highlighted. While playing online, Show answers outlines any words you haven’t found yet.
Can I print copies for my class or group?
Yes. Every puzzle on BetterWordSearch is free to print for personal, classroom, library and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need. To change the words or make several different versions of the grid, use the word search maker.
What changes between Easy, Medium, Hard and Large print?
Easy hides the 12 most familiar words, reading left to right and top to bottom. Medium uses 20 words and adds diagonals. Hard hides all 24 words in every direction, including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. Large print uses the same words as Easy on a small grid and prints with big letters.
