About this puzzle
The list follows American history from George Washington through the 20th century and into the 21st, using last names only. It leans toward the presidents students meet most often in class: the founders, Jackson and Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and the leaders of the World War and Cold War years, and the most recent presidents. Where two presidents share a surname, like Adams, Harrison, Johnson, or Bush, the word appears once and the note covers both.
Each note gives the number of the presidency and one solid, checkable fact, which makes the page a handy companion to a Presidents Day lesson or a civics unit. Families also use it before a trip to Washington, DC, and history fans can try the hard level and then test themselves on the order.
The 33 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Adams
- John Adams was the 2nd president and the first to live in the White House. His son John Quincy Adams became the 6th president.
- Biden
- Joe Biden was the 46th president, serving from 2021 to 2025. Before that, he represented Delaware in the US Senate for 36 years and was Barack Obama's vice president.
- Bush
- George H. W. Bush was the 41st president, and his son George W. Bush was the 43rd. They were the second father and son to both hold the office, after the Adamses.
- Clinton
- Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, served from 1993 to 2001. He had been governor of Arkansas, and the federal budget ran a surplus during his last years in office.
- Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president, was the main author of the Declaration of Independence. In 1803 he approved the Louisiana Purchase, roughly doubling the size of the country.
- Kennedy
- John F. Kennedy was the 35th president and the youngest person ever elected to the office, at age 43. He challenged the nation to land a person on the Moon.
- Lincoln
- Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, led the Union through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. At six feet four inches, he was the tallest president.
- Obama
- Barack Obama, the 44th president, was the first African American to hold the office. Before that, he served as a US senator from Illinois.
- Reagan
- Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, was a Hollywood actor and then governor of California before he was elected president in 1980.
- Roosevelt
- Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, protected millions of acres as national forests and parks. His distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd, was elected four times.
- Trump
- Donald Trump served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021 and returned in 2025 as the 47th. He is the second president, after Grover Cleveland, with nonconsecutive terms.
- Washington
- George Washington was the 1st president, serving from 1789 to 1797. He is the only president to receive every electoral vote, and he did it in both of his elections.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Carter
- Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, was a peanut farmer from Georgia. After leaving office he helped build homes with Habitat for Humanity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
- Eisenhower
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president, commanded the Allied D-Day invasion in 1944. As president, he signed the 1956 law that created the Interstate Highway System.
- Grant
- Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president. As the Union's top general, he accepted Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
- Jackson
- Andrew Jackson was the 7th president. Before that, he became a national hero by leading American forces at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
- Madison
- James Madison, the 4th president, is called the Father of the Constitution for his role in drafting it. He led the country during the War of 1812.
- Monroe
- James Monroe was the 5th president. His Monroe Doctrine of 1823 warned European powers not to create new colonies in the Americas.
- Nixon
- Richard Nixon was the 37th president. In 1972 he made a historic visit to China, and in 1974 he became the only president to resign from office.
- Truman
- Harry S. Truman became the 33rd president when Franklin Roosevelt died in April 1945. He led the country through the final months of World War II.
Added in Hard (13)
- Cleveland
- Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th president. He was the first president to serve two terms that were not back to back.
- Coolidge
- Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was nicknamed Silent Cal because he said so little. He is the only president born on the Fourth of July.
- Ford
- Gerald Ford became the 38th president in 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned. He is the only president who was never elected as either president or vice president.
- Garfield
- James A. Garfield was the 20th president. Years earlier, while serving in Congress, he published his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem from geometry.
- Harding
- Warren G. Harding, the 29th president, was a newspaper publisher from Ohio. He won the 1920 election, the first presidential race after the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the vote.
- Harrison
- William Henry Harrison, the 9th president, served only 31 days. His grandson Benjamin Harrison became the 23rd president, the only grandfather and grandson pair.
- Hoover
- Herbert Hoover, the 31st president, was a mining engineer. He took office in 1929, months before the stock market crash that began the Great Depression.
- Johnson
- Andrew Johnson was the 17th president and Lyndon B. Johnson the 36th. Both took office after a president was assassinated, and Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- McKinley
- William McKinley, the 25th president, led the country during the Spanish-American War of 1898. He was the last president who had served in the Civil War.
- Polk
- James K. Polk, the 11th president, served one term from 1845 to 1849. During those years the country added Texas, the Oregon Territory, and California, stretching to the Pacific.
- Taft
- William Howard Taft was the 27th president and later Chief Justice of the United States. He is the only person to have held both jobs.
- Tyler
- John Tyler, the 10th president, was the first vice president to take over after a president died in office. He had 15 children, more than any other president.
- Wilson
- Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, led the country through World War I and proposed the League of Nations, an early version of the United Nations.
A few facts to share while you solve
- William Henry Harrison had the shortest presidency. He died of illness about a month after his inauguration in 1841.
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
- The teddy bear is named after Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was Teddy, after a widely shared story about him refusing to shoot a captured bear on a hunting trip.
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 | 12 × 12 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 14 × 14 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 33 | 17 × 17 | 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 us presidents word search: all 33 words on a 17 × 17 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 us presidents 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
Does this word search include every US president?
Not quite. Hard includes 33 surnames, from Washington through Biden and Trump, while Easy keeps to 12 of the best known. Shared surnames count once, so Adams, Harrison, Johnson, Roosevelt, and Bush each stand for two presidents, and Cleveland and Trump each hold two numbers. A few lesser-known presidents are left out so the grid stays printable.
Why are only last names used in this puzzle?
Last names are how presidents are usually discussed in history class, and full names would make many entries too long for the grid. The notes give each president's full name and their number in the order of presidencies.
How can I use this puzzle for Presidents Day?
After solving, have students put the names they found in order using the numbers in the notes, or pick one president and share his fact with the class. Pairing the puzzle with a timeline or a map of Washington, DC, makes a full lesson.
Is there an answer key for this us presidents 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 33 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.
