About this puzzle
A vegetable is really a kitchen idea, not a botanical one, and this list has fun with that. You'll find roots (carrot, beet, parsnip), leaves (spinach, kale, lettuce), stalks (celery), bulbs (onion, garlic), flower buds (broccoli, artichoke), and a few that a botanist would call fruits, like zucchini and eggplant. The notes explain which part of the plant each one is.
Teachers use this puzzle for nutrition units and school garden projects, and it is handy at home for coaxing a picky eater into at least naming the green things on the plate. Familiar picks like carrot and onion keep it approachable, while kohlrabi, parsnip, and artichoke give confident solvers something new to look up, or even taste, afterward.
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)
- Broccoli
- When you eat broccoli, you're eating a cluster of unopened flower buds and the stalk that holds them. Left on the plant, the buds open into small yellow flowers.
- Carrot
- Early cultivated carrots were mostly purple or yellow. The sweet orange carrot we know today was developed by Dutch growers around the 1600s.
- Celery
- The crunchy part of celery is the leaf stalk. It is very low in calories, but the popular claim that chewing it burns more calories than it provides is a myth.
- Corn
- Corn was domesticated from a wild grass called teosinte in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. Each kernel is a seed, and each strand of silk leads to one kernel.
- Cucumber
- Cucumbers grow from flowers and carry seeds, so botanists classify them as fruits. They belong to the gourd family alongside melons and pumpkins.
- Lettuce
- Lettuce belongs to the daisy family, the same plant family as sunflowers. Iceberg, romaine, and butterhead are all varieties of a single species.
- Onion
- Cutting an onion breaks open cells that release a sulfur compound into the air. When that compound reaches your eyes, it irritates them and triggers tears.
- Peas
- Peas are seeds that grow inside pods. In the 1850s and 1860s, Gregor Mendel studied thousands of pea plants to discover the basic rules of how traits are inherited.
- Pepper
- Bell peppers start out green and turn red, yellow, or orange as they ripen, getting sweeter along the way. Hot peppers get their heat from a compound called capsaicin.
- Potato
- A potato is a tuber, a swollen underground stem that stores energy for the plant. Potatoes were first domesticated thousands of years ago in the Andes Mountains of South America.
- Pumpkin
- Pumpkins are a kind of winter squash, and botanically they are fruits. One pumpkin can hold several hundred seeds, which can be roasted for a crunchy snack.
- Tomato
- Botanically a tomato is a fruit, but in 1893 the US Supreme Court ruled it a vegetable for tax purposes, since people usually serve it with the main meal.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Cabbage
- Cabbage keeps for months in cool storage, which made it a winter staple for centuries. Fermenting shredded cabbage with salt produces sauerkraut.
- Cauliflower
- The white head of a cauliflower is called the curd, a tight mass of undeveloped flower buds. Orange, purple, and green varieties are also grown.
- Garlic
- A head of garlic is a bulb made of individual cloves. Garlic belongs to the allium family with onions, leeks, shallots, and chives.
- Green Bean
- Green beans are young bean pods picked before the seeds inside grow large. They are also called string beans, because older varieties had a tough string along the seam.
- Radish
- Radishes are among the fastest vegetables to grow. Some quick varieties are ready to pull about three to four weeks after planting.
- Spinach
- Spinach does contain iron, but it also contains oxalic acid, which makes much of that iron hard for the body to absorb. It is still rich in vitamins A and K.
- Squash
- Squash is native to the Americas, where Native farmers grew it alongside corn and beans. Summer squash is picked young, while winter squash grows a hard rind that keeps for months.
- Zucchini
- Zucchini is a summer squash that is picked young, while its skin is still tender. In Britain and France, it is called a courgette.
Added in Hard (12)
- Artichoke
- A globe artichoke is the flower bud of a thistle plant, harvested before it opens. If left to bloom, it becomes a large purple flower.
- Asparagus
- Asparagus spears are young shoots that push up from underground crowns each spring. A well-kept asparagus bed can keep producing for fifteen years or more.
- Beet
- Beets get their deep red color from pigments called betalains. A close relative, the sugar beet, is a major source of the world's table sugar.
- Bok Choy
- Bok choy is a Chinese cabbage with crisp white stalks and dark green leaves. Its name comes from Cantonese words meaning white vegetable.
- Eggplant
- Eggplant is in the nightshade family with tomatoes and potatoes. Its American name comes from early varieties that were small, white, and shaped like eggs.
- Kale
- Kale is a hardy leafy green that tolerates cold well. A light frost can make its leaves taste sweeter, because the plant converts some starch into sugar.
- Kohlrabi
- Kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip. The round part you eat is a swollen stem that grows just above the soil, and it tastes like a mild, sweet broccoli stem.
- Leek
- Leeks look like giant green onions and belong to the same allium family. Their layers trap soil, so cooks rinse them well. The leek is a national symbol of Wales.
- Okra
- Okra pods are picked young, while they are still tender. The plant is related to cotton and hibiscus, and it likely came to the Americas from Africa.
- Parsnip
- A parsnip looks like a pale carrot and is a close relative of it. Parsnips taste sweetest after cold weather, when the root turns some starch into sugar.
- Rhubarb
- Rhubarb is grown for its tart red or green stalks, which are usually cooked with sugar in pies and sauces. Only the stalks are eaten, because the leaves are poisonous.
- Turnip
- A turnip is a round root with white skin and a purple top where it pokes out into the sunlight. In Ireland and Scotland, people carved turnip lanterns long before pumpkins.
A few facts to share while you solve
- Cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi are all the same plant species, Brassica oleracea. Farmers bred each one to emphasize a different part of the plant.
- In 1995, potatoes became the first food crop grown in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- In 1947, a US customs court ruled that rhubarb counted as a fruit for import purposes, since Americans mostly cooked it in sweet pies and sauces.
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 | 32 | 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 vegetable 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 vegetable 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 are cucumber, zucchini, and eggplant in a vegetable puzzle if they're fruits?
Botanically they are fruits, because they grow from flowers and hold seeds. In the kitchen, though, anything savory that is cooked or served with the main meal tends to be called a vegetable. Both answers are correct in their own context, which makes it a good question to ask students after the puzzle.
Can I use this vegetable word search in a garden or nutrition unit?
It fits both. After solving, have students sort the words they found by plant part: roots, stems, leaves, bulbs, flower buds, and fruits. The word notes give the answers, and the sorting activity reinforces that every vegetable comes from a specific part of a living plant.
Is there an answer key for this vegetable 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 32 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.
