Badminton Word Search

Fifteen badminton words hidden in one grid, from Shuttlecock to Smash, with the answer key on a second page.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 15 words found

DVSERVEZBSFOHEN

UFHGNENCIWEKZIP

ADEUCFSORMASOHP

MRRDHMYUDITWSTA

SIOTDTZRIEHEZSD

NVNWOIDTEMEDBHD

SEOOUEWNQORDUUO

VTKRBNDSMASHVTK

WPAALEFEDPOINTU

GAYCERRCRCRALLY

UDRKSGCESINGLES

AGEENOSTLBRTYCL

TONTPBACKHANDOJ

RQQSSZFSTYEESCN

TCLEARTCEMRTOKC

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

ShuttlecockSHUTTLECOCK
BirdieBIRDIE
RacketRACKET
FeathersFEATHERS
NetNET
CourtCOURT
ServeSERVE
RallyRALLY
PointPOINT
SmashSMASH
ClearCLEAR
DriveDRIVE
BackhandBACKHAND
SinglesSINGLES
DoublesDOUBLES

15 of 24 words from the Badminton list.

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Answer key: Badminton Word Search

DVSERVEZBSFOHEN

UFHGNENCIWEKZIP

ADEUCFSORMASOHP

MRRDHMYUDITWSTA

SIOTDTZRIEHEZSD

NVNWOIDTEMEDBHD

SEOOUEWNQORDUUO

VTKRBNDSMASHVTK

WPAALEFEDPOINTU

GAYCERRCRCRALLY

UDRKSGCESINGLES

AGEENOSTLBRTYCL

TONTPBACKHANDOJ

RQQSSZFSTYEESCN

TCLEARTCEMRTOKC

SHUTTLECOCK, BIRDIE, RACKET, FEATHERS, NET, COURT, SERVE, RALLY, POINT, SMASH, CLEAR, DRIVE, BACKHAND, SINGLES, DOUBLES

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All 147 words

The Court 24

Beach One place where the casual outdoor game is played.
Boundary An outer edge of the playing area. A shuttle must land inside it to score.
Ceiling A hall is no good for the game if a high serve is likely to hit this.
Center line The mark that splits the width of each side into a right box and a left box.
Corner In singles, shots are normally aimed at these, to make the other player run.
Ends Players swap these when the second game begins.
Floor Play ends when the shuttle strikes this.
Forecourt The front part of a player's side, nearest the net.
Halves The two parts that the net divides the playing area into.
Indoor Said of the kind of court that serious games are played on.
Length Singles and doubles play to the same one.
Lines Server and receiver may not touch these until the serve is struck.
Midcourt The middle part of a player's side, where a high shuttle is usually smashed.
Net It divides the playing area into halves.
Post One stands over each doubles sideline to hold up the net, even for singles.

Show all 147 words (132 more)

The Court, continued

Rail In a small hall, a shuttle that touches an overhead one can be played again.
Rearcourt The back part of a player's side, where shots are hit from overhead.
Rectangle The shape of the playing area.
Sand One of the unusual surfaces that an outdoor form of the game is played on.
Service court The box a server must stand in, and the box diagonally opposite to aim at.
Service line The short one is near the net, and a serve must carry past it.
Sideline A long edge of the playing area. The doubles one lies farther out.
Width Doubles uses the full one of the playing area. Singles uses less.
Yard A casual game is often played outdoors in one.

Shuttle and Racket 34

Aluminum A light metal that rackets were made of before carbon fiber.
Birdie A nickname for the feathered thing that players hit.
Carbon The fiber that most good rackets are built from: stiff, strong and light.
Cone The open shape that the plumes make.
Cork The rounded base that the plumes are set into.
Drag The air resistance of the plumes, which slows the shuttle very quickly.
Duck With the goose, one of the two birds whose plumes are usually used.
Face The flat strung surface that strikes the shuttle.
Feathers Sixteen of them, overlapping, traditionally form the cone.
Goose One of the two birds whose plumes are usually used.
Graphite Another name for the reinforced material of a modern racket.
Grip The wrap on the handle that the hand holds.
Handle The part that is held. A player can build it up to make it thicker.
Head The wide strung end of a racket.
Isometric A shape of the strung end that is more and more common on new rackets.
Leather A thin layer of it covers the rounded base.
Lightweight Said of rackets and of proper footwear for the game.
Oval The traditional shape of the strung end.
Plastic What the shuttle in an informal game is often made of.
Polyurethane A man-made material that can form the base of a synthetic shuttle.
Projectile A thing sent flying through the air, as the shuttle is.
Racket A handle and a head of tight strings, used to strike the shuttle.
Recreational Players of this kind usually string their rackets less tightly than professionals do.
Shoes The right ones are light, with thin soles that grip and leave no marks.
Shuttlecock A cone of feathers on a rounded base, hit back and forth over the net.
Skirt The plastic cone of a synthetic shuttle.
Soles On proper footwear they are rubber, thin and non-marking.
Steel Cheap rackets are still often made of this metal.
Strings The thin lines stretched across the head of a racket.
Sweatband Worn to keep a damp hand from slipping on the handle.
Synthetic Said of a shuttle that is not feathered: cheaper and longer lasting.
Tension How tightly a racket is strung.
Throat The strengthened join between the handle and the strung end.
Wood What the earliest rackets were made of.

Strokes and Shots 20

Backhand A stroke hit as if with the knuckles leading.
Block The most common reply to a smash in singles: a soft shot to the net.
Clear A shot sent high to the back of the other side.
Crosscourt Said of a shot that is not hit straight.
Drive A shot that travels flat and fast just over the net.
Drop shot A soft hit that falls sharply into the other side's front area.
Flick A quick hit that sends the shuttle to the back when a net shot was expected.
Forehand A stroke played palm first, on the same side as the playing hand.
Lift A shot hit upward to the back of the other side.
Lob Another word for a lift.
Net kill A steep downward hit from close in that tries to end the rally at once.
Net shot A soft push back to the net, played from the front area.
Overhead A stroke hit while the shuttle is still above the player.
Push A soft shot to the net played from the middle or back.
Reply A weak one of these is what a smash hopes for.
Return The shot that answers the other side's shot.
Serve The hit that starts every rally, struck upward from below a set height.
Smash A powerful hit aimed steeply downward, hoping to win the rally at once.
Stroke Any one way of hitting the shuttle. All can be played on either side of the body.
Winner A shot that ends the rally outright.

Spin, Deception and Fitness 26

Aerodynamic The shuttle is very stable in this way: it always turns to fly base first.
Agility The ability to move and change direction quickly. Top players need it.
Angle A jump makes this steeper for a smash.
Attack Hitting downward. Both pairs in doubles try to gain it and keep it.
Decelerate To slow down. A shuttle does it far more quickly than a ball.
Deception Making one stroke look like another until the last moment.
Defend What a pair must do after a lift or a clear, standing side by side.
Double motion Starting the racket one way, then pulling it back to hit another way.
Fake A turn of the racket head during the hit that changes where the shuttle goes.
Finger power Tightening the hold on the handle to hit hard with a very short swing.
Flight The way the shuttle travels, which gives the sport its special nature.
Forearm Turning this part of the arm gives a stroke most of its power.
Formation How a doubles pair stands: one behind the other to attack.
Intercept To cut off a reply before it gets past, as the front player of a pair does.
Parabola The curve of a lifted shuttle, which comes down more steeply than it went up.
Patience Singles is a game of this, moving the other player about.
Precision Hitting exactly where one means to. Top players need it.
Reflex Said of the very quick exchanges in men's doubles.
Slice To strike the shuttle with an angled racket face.
Speed No other racket sport matches the top one of the shuttle.
Spin A shuttle has a slight natural one, from the way its plumes overlap.
Stamina With agility, strength, speed and precision, what top players need.
Swing A big one leaves little time to get ready for the next shot in a fast exchange.
Trick To make an opponent believe a different stroke is coming.
Tumble To turn over and over, as a sliced shuttle does when it crosses the net.
Wrist The game asks for much more bend here than some other racket sports do.

Serving and Scoring 22

Bounce Something the shuttle is never allowed to do.
Coin It may be tossed to decide who serves first.
Diagonal The direction of every serve, from one box to the opposite one.
Drive serve A flat start to the rally, rare in singles.
Even In singles, a server with this kind of score stands in the right box.
Fault A broken rule. It ends the rally.
Flick serve A start to the rally lifted less high, so that the shuttle falls sooner.
Game It takes two of these, out of three, to win a match.
High serve A start to the rally lifted so high that the shuttle falls almost straight down.
Laws The rule book of the sport is called by this word.
Lead A game tied near the end goes on until one side has one of two points.
Let A call that stops the rally, which is then played again. The score stays as it was.
Low serve A start to the rally sent into the front area, like a push.
Match The best of three games.
Odd In singles, a server with this kind of score stands in the left box.
Once How many times a side may strike the shuttle before it crosses the net.
Point The winner of each rally scores one.
Rally The exchange of hits from the serve until the shuttle lands or a fault is called.
Receiver The player who stands diagonally opposite the one who starts the rally.
Score It does not change when a let is called.
Server The player who starts the rally.
Tie A level score.

Players and History 21

Battledore An older word for a racket.
Casual Said of the easygoing game played outdoors for fun.
Club Officers home from India started one for the game in England by 1875.
Court The rectangle the game is played on, marked for singles and doubles.
Doubles The form of the game with two players on each side.
House The sport is named after a country one in England.
India The country where the modern game grew up in the 1800s.
Loom The first half of the shuttlecock's name comes from a part of this weaving machine.
Mixed Said of doubles in which each pair is a man and a woman.
Officers The modern game grew up among British ones stationed in India.
Opponent The player on the other side of the net.
Pair The two players on one side in doubles.
Parchment Old battledores were made of this or of gut, stretched on a wooden frame.
Partner The other player on the same side in doubles.
Poona An early name for the game, from the town in India where its first rules were written.
Rooster The second half of the shuttlecock's name comes from the plumes of this bird.
Rubber Early shuttles were coated with the India kind.
Service judge An official, other than the umpire, who can call a fault.
Singles The form of the game with one player on each side.
Umpire An official who can call a fault.
Wool An old form of the game used a ball of this in windy or wet weather.

How this list was compiled: Badminton words chosen and defined for this site in six themed lists (the court; shuttle and racket; strokes and shots; spin, deception and fitness; serving and scoring; players and history), with a favorites list, an easy list and a hard list. Terms, rules and history were checked on 2026-10-16 against the English Wikipedia articles Badminton, Shuttlecock, Racket (sports equipment) and Battledore and shuttlecock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton (CC BY-SA 4.0), and spellings against Wiktionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/. Every meaning is in our own words, and spellings are American (racket, center, aluminum). No player, team, tournament or brand is named, and court sizes, net heights and the points in a game, which the rules have changed before, are left out. Licence: own work

How it works

This badminton word search opens on Shuttlecock, Birdie, Racket and Feathers, then Net, Court, Serve, Rally and Point, and three strokes, Smash, Clear and Drive. Every word has a one-line meaning.

Read the full guide

Six lists, from the net to the game's first name

Start from a list has The Court (Forecourt, Service court, Center line), Shuttle and Racket (Cork, Skirt, Strings), Strokes and Shots (Drop shot, Lift, Net kill), Spin, Deception and Fitness (Slice, Tumble, Double motion), Serving and Scoring (Fault, Let, Flick serve) and Players and History (Battledore, Poona, Loom).

An easy list and a hard one

Easy Badminton keeps to 65 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Net, Lob, Duck, Goose and Rally. Hard Badminton has 20 long ones, Shuttlecock, Battledore and Crosscourt among them.

Tick Show clues, not words in More options: "Another word for a lift." then stands for Lob.
The grid drops spaces: look for DROPSHOT, NETKILL, FLICKSERVE and CENTERLINE.

Questions and answers

Why is it called a shuttlecock?

The shuttle part comes from its back-and-forth flight, like the shuttle of a loom. The cock part comes from its feathers, which look like a rooster's. Players also call it a shuttle or a birdie.

What is a shuttlecock made of?

A traditional shuttlecock is sixteen overlapping feathers, usually goose or duck, set in a rounded cork base covered with thin leather. A synthetic one has a plastic skirt in place of the feathers and lasts longer.

What is the difference between a smash and a clear?

A smash is hit hard and steeply downward to try to win the rally. A clear goes high to the back of the other court. A drop shot is hit softly, so that it falls sharply just past the net.

Where did badminton get its name?

From Badminton House, a country house in Gloucestershire, England, though why and when is unclear. The modern game grew up among British officers in India in the mid-1800s and was also called Poona, after the town where its first rules were written in 1873.

All 147 words

The Court 24

The Court, continued

Shuttle and Racket 34

Strokes and Shots 20

Spin, Deception and Fitness 26

Serving and Scoring 22

Players and History 21

How it works

Six lists, from the net to the game's first name

An easy list and a hard one

Questions and answers

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